The exhibition Market Makers, which runs from 5 to 7 October 2023 at Atelier Knecht/Wendelin at Leipziger Straße 63 in Berlin, illuminates the intricate relationship between art, finance and culture and seeks to explore the economic dynamics behind it.
Artworks from the Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank are combined with artworks complemented by NFTs (non-fungible tokens), referencing value creation, economic mechanisms, and networked interactions.
The exhibition seeks to go beyond the traditional notion of art by exploring exchanges within artworks and delving into the myths surrounding both historical and contemporary markets. It aims to shed light on the complexities of current tensions between cryptocurrencies, decentralised finance (DeFi), banks and traditional financial mechanisms.
Market Makers addresses the inherent discrepancy within existing art criticism that capital relations are not fully acknowledged in art, but the meaning of art as well as its production plays a central role.
The Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank plays a central role in this exhibition, because with a focus on art from Berlin and the region of Brandenburg, the collection particularly emphasizes the artistic movements of the 1980s to 1990s. The Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank holds a position as one of the pioneering collections that actively sought to collect, promote and provide a certain accessibility for these artists and works to be perceived in a broader market.
The exhibition will include workshops and educational programs to sustainably promote discussions on this topic.