Bucks 'N Barter

Artist list

Beatrice Brovia, Nicolas Cheng, Hilde De Decker, Richard Elenbaas, Tzu Ling Lee, Prang Lerttaweewit, Kajsa Lindberg, Katrin Spranger

This exhibition features works from 9 international artists active in the fields of jewelry, art, craft, product and experience design, with site specific installations, newly commissioned works and a selection of thought-provoking pieces, all together investigating a complex and multifaceted topic, that of the human tendency to trade and exchange and how this has shaped not only the society we live in but also the way we perceive and relate to things and materials. Key themes touched upon are value and currency, material culture, barter and exchange in terms of economics, symbols, knowledge and cultures; the relationship between the market and the applied arts, between physical and virtual.

Exhibition concept
Barter, truck and trade are all activities based on the exchange not only of physical items - exotic goods, currencies, precious ornaments, metals, spices, valuable tools and materials - but on an other type of exchange, less tangible perhaps but as valuable: the exchange of ideas. From the marketplaces and caravanserais along the main trade routes of the past, to trade fairs across the continents, to the virtually borders-free platform represented by the internet, innovation has been made possible through the exchange of knowledge and revolutionary ideas. Trade is an irriducible and intrinsic human impulse, as primal as the needs for food, shelter, sexual intimacy and companionship. Evolutionary anthropologists date the origins of modern human behavior, among which are trade and communication, in eastern and southern Africa to over 100.000 years ago. Social philosopher Adam Smith wrote that man has an intrinsic “propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for an other”; this innate tendency has yelded an ever increasing volume and variety of goods. Few other things are able to tell us as much of the world we live in today as do the origins, development and history of world trade. The exhibition’s theme represents a guideline to explore ideas connected to value, communication, exchange in terms of economics, symbols, knowledge and cultures, the relationship bewteen the market and the applied arts, between physical and virtual. The works gathered in the exhibition will each tell a thought-provoking story, instaurate a private dialogue with the viewer, unravel an own thread within a complex and multifaceted topic, that of the human tendency to trade and exchange and how this has shaped not only the society we live in but also the way we perceive and relate to things and materials.

The exhibition is held in conjunction with the Internationale Handwerksmesse München Schmuck 2013. In particular, it unravels over a shorter period of three concentrated days, from 7.3. -9.3.2013 (Thursday, Friday & Saturday). The location of the event, gallery Kullukcu, is situated in Schillerstrasse, an area selected for its historical and cultural relevance, also considering its proximity to the Hauptbahnof, one of the main points of access to and departure from the city of Munich. An area where not only goods, but also people from different cultures, are in a state of constant flow. Where new ideas and values, along with actual things, are most likely to be exchanged. Together with the exhibition, which will gather around the main theme of trade and currency nine artists and designers of diverse background and nationalities, informal, impromptu talks are encouraged. The exhibition space is intended as a meeting place, likewise a contemporary caravanserai, not at all hierachical or intimidating, in order to really favour some sort of exchange among different audiences. Great attention is paid to the space definition and concept in order to invite the audience to linger a little longer than it would normally do in a gallery or museum. To stimulate conviviality through informal conversations in combination with specially conceived food-related experiences.