When we were seven years old, they would carry us on their backs, pacing back and forth over the snow, and even then we used to work sixteen hours. They often knelt down to feed us as we stood by the machine. For we would not step away from it until we fainted. We saw clearly that pleasure is nothing but a mental blackout, a dereliction of consciousness because it fails to attain the fullness of self-love but then, once it believes itself in possession of the desired object, takes a seat, at its leisure, and expires. So that consciousness may finally be silent, we labor in the unwavering expectation of such consummation, unquenched and so with constant wakefulness, a sparse flow of nervous organs never at peace, from neck to shoulder blade and back. And when we work, it is at bottom not because we wish to live; all we desire is to become unconscious. Ah, and the fruits of our labors, which sustain our continued existence, prevent complete unconsciousness and induce only the impotence of a swoon that is merely the imperfect oblivion from which we wake up every time to strive for it afresh. The time desolate of work is empty, it trickles away untamed and unpaid, and I myself am such time, sitting in the rooms, stagnant the way old air is stagnant, motionless and untamed and unconverted into money, and so I feel that, unlike the movie stars, I am most mortal. Hence my decision: it is essential for me to regard myself as an outcome (a product)—and, I add vindictively, I want to make a deal. The future is a home stretch: what is on hand, what is in demand, what can be secured. And quite personally, I will recover what I have lost along the way: new classifications, new meaning, new work.
Arbeitsplatzprojektionsmaschine, 1998-1999
Mixed media installation
Alice Creischer
Alice Creischer, born in Gerolstein in 1960, studied Philosophy, German literature and Visual Arts in Düsseldorf. As one of the key figures of German political art movements in the Nineties, Creischer contributed to a great amount of collective projects, publications, and exhibitions. Her artistic and theoretic agenda within institutional and economical critique has evolved over 20 years, more recently focusing on the early history of capitalism and globalization. As co-curator of such paradigmatic exhibitions like Messe 2ok (1995), ExArgentina (2004) and The Potosi Principle (2010), Creischer has developed a specific curatorial practice that correlates with her work as an artist and theorist, including her extensive practice in archive research. As author Creischer has contributed to many publications, magazines and fanzines. She has been awarded a few prizes throughout the years, most recently of the Günther-Peill-Stiftung (Düren, 2018). She has hold solo exhibitions at institutions such as Stadtgalerie Wedding, Berlin (2019), Culturgest, Lisbon (2017), ifa Galerie, Berlin (2013), MACBA, Barcelona (2008) and secession Vienna (2001). Her work has been shwon in group shows at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2022, 2021, 2019, 2017), Künstlerhaus Bethanien (2021), LWL Museum, Münster (2021), Gropius Bau, Berlin (2019), Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (2018), Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (2016), ludwig Forum aachen (2015) among others.
- Anna Boghiguian
- Candice Breitz
- Marco A. Castillo
- CATPC
- Alice Creischer
- Chto Delat
- Clegg & Guttmann
- Eugenio Dittborn
- Heinrich Dunst
- Anna Ehrenstein
- Estate of León Ferrari
- Peter Friedl
- Sophie Gogl
- Estate of Barbara Hammer
- The Cabinet of Ramon Haze
- Hiwa K
- Simon Lehner
- Renzo Martens
- Chris Martin
- Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger
- Oswald Oberhuber
- Mario Pfeifer
- Dierk Schmidt
- Santiago Sierra
- Michael E. Smith
- Franz Erhard Walther
- Clemens von Wedemeyer
- Tobias Zielony