English:

The overall exhibition project takes as its starting point a meditation on the unfathomably trash-ridden condition of the office spaces of the influential trading firm Island ECN, which throughout the 1990s revolutionized financial trading. Island, founded by computer programmer and free information idealist Joshua Levine, had offices on the 10th floor of 50 Broad St in the financial district of New York City. It housed the ultimate in avant-garde high frequency trading; they called themselves ‘Kings of the plumbers’, they were the ones who understood how to bank on the very infrastructure that facilitated the transaction of the stock, rather than the stock itself. It was here that high frequency trading was conceived, and was to leave its distinct mark on the future of economics. A form of trading that outmanoeuvred the human faculties, the speed of every microtransaction weaving ever-new threads in an opaque, unstable neuro-network of hyper-connected currents. A situation that today has not only come to define financial trading but, in the form of AI, is in the process of redefining the way our societies will operate more broadly.

At AGA Works the video piece Suicide Slide (Hand of God) is removed from the main installation and inscribed in the broader topic of the art project ‘På korte kontrakter’ (On Short-Term Contracts), conceived by artists Kaspar Bonnén and Rosa Marie Frang, which focuses on artists’ working conditions and possibilities for finding studio spaces in the city.

Suicide Slide (Hand of God) is an interpretation of Island founder and free information idealist Joshua Levine’s blog post of February 11th, 2018: I’ve been dreaming of jumping off the top of the Grace Building since I was a little kid. It always seemed like the curve would catch me like the hand of god. I’d love to build a giant stainless steel parabolic curve. Really giant, like hundreds of feet tall. The curve would be vertical at the top, gently becoming horizontal by the bottom. It would “catch” you by directing your downward motion into forward motion. At the top you would be in free-fall, at the bottom you’d be on the fastest county fair slide ever.

In the video, a banker ascends to the roof of a skyscraper and contemplates jumping down Levine’s vision, here a steeply inclining financial curve of the kind that visualizes exponential growth. Inside the exhibition space, it is paired with the new work Jump! You Fuckers! (September 25th 2008 / February 11th 2018), a reproduction of a cardboard sign held up at an Occupy Wall Street rally. Together they comment on the drive to reach further – both to achieve more as an individual and to attain greater profits, which seem to inevitably result in the alienation of the individual and the subjugation of the many in society for the benefit of the few.

On the facade, the work SURVIVALISM (Capital Letters) further comments on challenging working conditions, not only for artists but for the majority of people as we move into the deeper stages of late capitalist society. In the context of the project ‘På Korte kontrakter’, the Suicide Slide installation at AGA Works comments on the increasingly large role the financial markets play in property speculation and on urban development that is focused on high returns for investors, rather than on an integrated cityscape for the citizens.

Together with the parallel exhibition at Portfolio X, the exhibition project Oceanic Horror – or How to Survive the Night in the Haunted Mansion of Absolute Capitalism brings together various transrealist narratives revolving around high-frequency trading, financialization and horror fiction, in a speculative encounter with everyday existence and the social relations between the inhabitants of this opaque financial structure.

Bios

Søren Thilo Funder is a visual artist working primarily with video and installation. His works are mash-ups of popular fictions, cultural tropes and socio-political situations, projections and histories. They are narrative constructions that insist on new meaning being formed in the thin membrane separating fictions from realities. Invested in written and unwritten histories, the paradoxes of societal engagement, temporal displacements and a need for new nonlinear narratives, Thilo Funder proposes spaces for awry temporal, political and recollective encounters.

Christopher Sand-Iversen studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and Visual Culture at the University of Copenhagen. He serves as the director of SixtyEight Art Institute and is the chief editor of RSS Press. He has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions for SixtyEight since its inception in 2011, as well as editing publications that emerge from the exhibition programmes. He has also translated numerous literary and academic texts; his work has appeared in Asymptote, Shenandoah, Poetry Wales, Precipice, and Poem, and with Passagen Verlag, Forlaget Wunderbuch, Aarhus University, and Cambridge Scholars Press, among others.

Rebekka Elisabeth Anker-Møller is a Danish curator based at SixtyEight Art Institute in Copenhagen. She holds a master's degree in Visual Culture from the University of Copenhagen and an international MA in curating from Aarhus University. Anker-Møller has previously worked at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, VEGA|ARTS and with the curatorial collective South into North, as well as co-managed the exhibition space RØM together with four visual artists (2016-2018). She has also taught curation at Johan Borups Højskole in Copenhagen and at Kunstpionererne in Kunsthal Nord, Aalborg. Recent bigger art projects include Enheduana - Queen of All Powers at Thorvaldsens Museum (2022) and person - in motion at Rønnebæksholm, Copenhagen Contemporary, Kunsthal Nord and Kunsthal Aarhus (2022-2023).

AGA Works is the new site of Tørreloft, a program initiated in 2015, based on experimental forms of production, collaboration and experience for local and international artists. In opposition to the original clandestine drying attic, the current format takes place in an industrial garage where the 4th wall is a shutter that opens to a busy street.

SixtyEight is an artistic and curatorial research organisation, which seeks to uncover and develop the exchange between artists and curators and their creative labour. The exhibition Oceanic Horror – or How to Survive the Night in the Haunted Mansion of Absolute Capitalism is part of our current exhibition programme.

The exhibition has received funding from Statens Kunstfond, Beckett-Fonden, Augustinus Fonden, and Knud Højgaards Fond, as well as Grosserer LF Foghts Fond and Rådet for Visuel Kunst, Copenhagen Municipality.

Dansk:

Det overordnede udstillingsprojekt tager udgangspunkt i en meditation over den kaotiske og møgbeskidte tilstand, som kontorlokalerne for det indflydelsesrige handelsfirma Island ECN befandt sig i, alt imens firmaet revolutionerede det finansielle marked gennem 1990'erne. Island, som var grundlagt af computerprogrammør og fortaler for fri information, Joshua Levine, havde kontorer på 10. etage i 50 Broad St i finansdistriktet i New York City. Disse kontorer husede højfrekvenshandlens ultimative avantgarde; “Kings of the plumbers” kaldte de sig. De forstod at satse på selve den infrastruktur, der gjorde det lettere at handle med obligationer, snarere end obligationerne selv. Det var fra disse kontorer, at ideen om højfrekvenshandel blev undfanget, en ide der skulle sætte sit tydelige præg på fremtidens økonomiske strukturer. En form for handel, der udmanøvrerer menneskets evner, hvor hastigheden af hver mikrotransaktion stadig væver nye tråde i et uigennemsigtigt, ustabilt neuro-netværk af hyperforbundne strømme. En situation, der i dag ikke kun definerer finansiel handel, men som via kunstig intelligens er i færd med at omdefinere den måde, vores samfund kommer til at fungere på i fremtiden.

På AGA Works præsenteres videoværket Suicide Slide (Hand of God), her fjernet fra den større installation og nu indskrevet i tematikken for udstillingsrækken 'På korte kontrakter', udtænkt af kunstnerne Kaspar Bonnén og Rosa Marie Frang, der sætter fokus på kunstneres arbejdsforhold og muligheder for at finde atelier-rum i byen.

Suicide Slide (Hand of God) er en fortolkning af Islands grundlægger og fri informations idealist, Joshua Levines blogindlæg af 11. februar 2018: Jeg har drømt om at hoppe ud fra toppen af Grace Building, siden jeg var et lille barn. Det virkede altid som om kurven ville fange mig som guds hånd. Jeg ville elske at bygge en kæmpe parabolsk kurve i rustfrit stål. Virkelig kæmpe, som hundrede fod høj. Kurven ville være lodret i toppen og forsigtigt blive vandret ved bunden. Den ville "fange" dig ved at rette din nedadgående bevægelse ind i en fremadgående bevægelse. Øverst ville du være i frit fald, i bunden ville du være på den hurtigste omrejsende tivoli rutschebane nogensinde.

I videoen stiger en bankmand op på taget af en skyskraber og overvejer at hoppe ned ad Levines vision, her en stejlt skrånende finansiel kurve af den slags, der visualiserer eksponentiel vækst. Inde i udstillingsrummet er det parret med det nye værk Jump! You Fuckers! (September 25th 2008 / February 11th 2018), en reproduktion af et papskilt holdt op ved et Occupy Wall Street-rally. Sammen kommenterer de drivkraften til at nå mere – både for at opnå mere som individ og for at opnå større overskud, som ser ud til uundgåeligt at resultere i fremmedgørelsen af individet og underkuelsen af de mange i samfundet til gavn for de få.

På facaden kommenterer værket SURVIVALISM (Capital Letters) yderligere på udfordrende arbejdsforhold, ikke kun for kunstnere, men for flertallet af mennesker, når vi bevæger os ind i de dybere stadier af det senkapitalistiske samfund. I forbindelse med projektet 'På Korte kontrakter' kommenterer Suicide Slide-installationen på AGA Works på den stadig større rolle, de finansielle markeder spiller i ejendomsspekulation og på byudvikling, der synes at være fokuseret på høje afkast til investorer, snarere end på et integreret bybillede for borgerne.

Sammen med paralleludstillingen Oceanic Horror på Portfolio X samler udstillingsprojektet Oceanic Horror – or How to Survive the Night in the Haunted Mansion of Absolute Capitalism forskellige transrealistiske fortællinger, der kredser om højfrekvent handel, finansialisering og gyserfiktion, i et spekulativt møde med hverdagens eksistens og de sociale relationer mellem indbyggerne i denne uigennemsigtige finansielle struktur.

Bios

Søren Thilo Funder arbejder primært med video og installation. Hans værker er mash-ups af populære fiktioner, kulturelle troper og socio-politiske situationer, forestillinger og historier. Værkerne er narrative konstruktioner, der insisterer på at danne ny mening i den tynde membran, der adskiller fiktion fra virkeligheden. Optaget af skrevne og uskrevne historier, samfundsdeltagelsens paradoksale natur og et behov for nye nonlineære narrativer, foreslår Thilo Funders værker nye rum for underlige tidsbaserede, politiske og refleksive møder.

Christopher Sand-Iversen studerede kunsthistorie på Courtauld Institute of Art, London, og visuel kultur på Københavns Universitet. Han er leder af SixtyEight Art Institute og chefredaktør for RSS Press. Han har kurateret og co-kurateret adskillige udstillinger for SixtyEight siden starten i 2011, ligesom han har redigeret publikationer, der udspringer af udstillingsprogrammerne. Han har også oversat talrige litterære og akademiske tekster; hans tekstarbejde har figureret i Asymptote, Shenandoah, Poetry Wales, Precipice og Poem, og med blandt andre Passagen Verlag, Forlaget Wunderbuch, Aarhus Universitet og Cambridge Scholars Press.

Rebekka Elisabeth Anker-Møller er en dansk kurator med base hos SixtyEight Art Institute i København. Hun har en kandidat i visuel kultur fra Københavns Universitet og en international MA i kuratering fra Aarhus Universitet. Anker-Møller har tidligere arbejdet på Kunsthal Charlottenborg, VEGA|ARTS og hos kurator-kollektivet South into North samt co-drevet udstillingsstedet RØM sammen med fire billedkunstnere (2016-2018). Hun har derudover undervist i kuratering på Johan Borups Højskole i København og ved Kunstpionererne i Kunsthal Nord, Aalborg. Seneste større kunstprojekter inkluderer Enheduana - Dronning over Verdens Magter på Thorvaldsens Museum (2022) og person - i bevægelse på henholdsvis Rønnebæksholm, Copenhagen Contemporary, Kunsthal Nord og Kunsthal Aarhus (2022-2023).

AGA Works er det nye udstillingssted for Tørreloft, et program startet i 2015, baseret på eksperimenterende produktionsformer, samarbejde og oplevelse for lokale og internationale kunstnere. I modsætning til det oprindelige hemmelige tørreloft foregår det nuværende format i en industrigarage, hvor 4. væg er en skodde, der åbner ud til en befærdet gade.

SixtyEight er en kunstnerisk/kuratorisk researchorganisation, der ønsker at afdække, udvikle og fremme udveksling mellem kunstnere og kuratorer og deres kreative arbejdskraft. Udstillingen Oceanic Horror – or How to Survive the Night in the Haunted Mansion of Absolute Capitalism er en del af vores seneste udstillingsprogram.

Udstillingen har modtaget støtte fra Statens Kunstfond, Beckett-Fonden, Augustinus Fonden, og Knud Højgaards Fond, såvel som Grosserer LF Foghts Fond og Rådet for Visuel Kunst, Københavns Kommune.