10 Feb 2014

If You Are So Smart, Why Aint You Rich? Official Parallel Project of the 5th Marrakech Biennale 2014

Curators: Pauline Doutreluingne & Dr. Bonaventure Ndikung
Curatorial assistants: Anneli von Klitzing, Gauthier Lesturgie

Artists: Gilles Aubry & Zouheir Atbane, Paolo Bottarelli, Younes Baba Ali, Tal Isaac Hadad, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Brandon LaBelle, Marco Montiel-Soto, Emeka Ogboh, Lukas Truniger & Ali Tnani and Evgenija Wassilew.


The crux of the exhibition 'If You're So Smart, Why Ain't You Rich?' deliberates on the 'knowledgeable society' by questioning, through artistic reflection, the place and confluence of knowledge and economy within society. Stemming its impulse from the same-titled piece by minimalist composer and pianist Julius Eastman, the project brings together twelve international artists working primarily with sound installations fathoming, among other subjects, the tug of war between the cognitive, intellectual and economic, financial capital. Eastman's oeuvre is a glimpse into the hassles prevalent within society, which he bluntly engraves into his timeless scores.

Taking into consideration Daniel Bell's posit that theoretical knowledge is the most important resource for a post-industrial society - in contrast to raw materials, capital and labour that are the pillars of any industrial society - If You're So Smart, Why Ain't You Rich? uses the exhibition format as a platform to reflect on how epistemology becomes an economic resource in 'Knowledge(able) Societies'. Knowledge in this context is not limited to the Western 'Monoculture of scientific knowledge', but 'an ecology of knowledge's', as described by Boaventura de Sousa Santos. The project fosters a granular discourse on the role of increased information- and workflow in the construction of knowledge assemblages in an internet and 'globalized' age. It is common knowledge that the crisis that took a firm grip on the world's economy in the past half decade was the result of a society plagued by avarice. If this assertion should hold any ground, one must investigate the distribution and negotiation of wealth and knowledge in contemporary society, especially as we witness a shift in economic power towards the BRICS territories.

The project also aims at investigating the objective materiality of sound and sonorous experience. It will explore how sound becomes haptic, tactile and textural in society, politics and economy. The question that arises at this juncture is how can material sound, just like epistemic objects, impact knowledge production and transfer. The issue at stake for this exhibition project is therefore reading the creation, position, dissemination and application of knowledge and economic activity through the prism of art.


If You're So Smart, Why Ain't You Rich? is a collaborative Satellite Project N°1 for Giving Contours To Shadows, a project that looks at alternative trajectories of historical narration – from embodiment practices to the pre-writing of History. It is to this end that If You're So Smart, Why Ain't You Rich? focuses on sound as a medium for epistemic production and transmission, in an effort to situate a sonic History of the present, as seen through the prism of artistic engagement.


If You're So Smart, Why Ain't You Rich? is supported by Goethe Institute Rabat, Goethe Institute Nigeria, Pro Helvetia, Berliner Senat, the Flemish authorities and crowdfunders.

Giving Contours To Shadows is funded by the TURN Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and Ernst Schering Foundation.


www.ifyouaresosmartwhyaintyourich.org
www.esavmarrakech.com
www.marrakechbiennale.org