Markus Winninghoff published a great Photo-Blog about the Berlin Art Week. Pictures say more than a thousand words …
As part of Berlin Art Week, the Uferhallen Studios are showing a group exhibition on the subject of On Equal Terms, which deals with the relationship between art and capital.
Art is equally as existential as capital
Berlin artist Steffi Düsterhöft’s painting «On Equal Terms” picks up on the topic of the relationship between art and culture vis-à-vis the monetary capital and explores the question whether these two social goods (and often opposing states) meet each other on equal terms.
The painting symbolizes the cold pursuit of maximal profit and the golden calf on the one hand and the artistic passion that appears lively, light and warm on the other hand. Both meet each other at the “golden ratio”. It becomes clear,
that the former has more leverage on the scales of this contention and weighs heavier. And yet the observer recognizes that the latter, albeit being lighter,
possesses equal strength and can hold the balance. Art is equally existential as capital.
The eye of the beholder becomes unexpectedly the umpire of the perpetual contention. It is equally drawn to gold and passion, thereby following humans’ instinct who are driven by money in the struggle (survival) for existence and yet only culture makes their lives worth living.
Gauthier Cerf