Time/Bank at The Frieze Fair’s Impossible Exchange

by Art Fag City on October 16, 2009 · 8 comments Events

POST BY PADDY JOHNSON

Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle, time/bank at Impossible Exchange, Frieze Fair

Jumping from unrated to the position of 8th in ArtReview’s most “powerful” art world figures, E-Flux crew Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle’s new-found fame failed to solicit teeming crowds at Frieze’s Impossible Exchange. Conceived by Filipa Oliveira and Miguel Amado, Impossible Exchange displays projects by one of six invited artists daily, highlighting E-Flux’s time/bank yesterday an online art barter system that exchanges “hour notes” (time) for requested services. The physical exhibition highlights possible representations of that project. An array of artist-commissioned currency resulted, amongst my favorite, the currency featuring Aranda and Vidokle’s face on the three hour and one hour bill, respectively [pictured below].


Wilson Diaz/Anna Maria Milan, time/bank contribution at Impossible Exchange, Frieze Fair

Perhaps the respect Aranda, Vidokle and the more than thirty invited artists garner in the art world make me a little hesitant to take the following position, but generally speaking, I don’t find barter all that interesting as an art practice. In an earlier permutation of the project, E-Flux opened a pawnshop in New York’s Lower East Side, housing a fair amount of art indistinguishable from items that might be found in a such a shop. Given that I garner enough understanding of exchange through day to day life, I was never sure what I was supposed to get out of the project, even after having attended one of their talks.

To my mind, time/bank finds greater success because the project meets real art world needs. I signed up for time/bank for the exchange of services I couldn’t otherwise afford, and that, I like.

{ 8 comments }

alikelove October 16, 2009 at 3:37 pm

#8 for an email list? That list is a joke.

alikelove October 16, 2009 at 11:37 am

#8 for an email list? That list is a joke.

greg.org October 16, 2009 at 8:12 pm

you’re crankier when you travel

greg.org October 16, 2009 at 4:12 pm

you’re crankier when you travel

alikelove October 16, 2009 at 9:00 pm

funnier then #8 for eflux is this quote from the artnewspapers daily edition:

“Perhaps something that is substantial and has gravitas seems good at this time,” said Los Angeles dealer Marc Foxx (B1). Art at the fair “feels subtler”, he observed. “Things have a little more substance.”
Foxx features Turner Prize nominee Roger Hiorn’s Untitled, comprising an engine with cow brains

http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Gravitas-is-good/19597

alikelove October 16, 2009 at 5:00 pm

funnier then #8 for eflux is this quote from the artnewspapers daily edition:

“Perhaps something that is substantial and has gravitas seems good at this time,” said Los Angeles dealer Marc Foxx (B1). Art at the fair “feels subtler”, he observed. “Things have a little more substance.”
Foxx features Turner Prize nominee Roger Hiorn’s Untitled, comprising an engine with cow brains

http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Gravitas-is-good/19597

Art Fag City October 17, 2009 at 12:06 am

@greg.org It might be true, though it’s too bad that’s noticeable on the blog. Mostly I think I’m growing tired of art fairs. I’ve probably seen 20 this year. It doesn’t take long before you’ve basically said all the important things there are to be said about them for the year.

@alikelove: that is an amazing quote!

Art Fag City October 16, 2009 at 8:06 pm

@greg.org It might be true, though it’s too bad that’s noticeable on the blog. Mostly I think I’m growing tired of art fairs. I’ve probably seen 20 this year. It doesn’t take long before you’ve basically said all the important things there are to be said about them for the year.

@alikelove: that is an amazing quote!

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