Transactions (2016)
Transactions
Manifesta 11 Parallel Event
Zurich University
Zurich, Switzerland
Curated by Michael Hiltbrunner
and Katharina Weikl
June 11 - July 10, 2016
The exhibition Transactions, part of the art biennial Manifesta 11, is transforming the main building of the University of Zurich into an experimental space for artistic and scholarly exploration.
Taking the biennial’s theme - what people do for money - as an inspiration, the overarching aim is to shed light on the relationships, transferences, and interdependencies between money, happiness, health, and fairness in the context of work.
The title Transactions is inspired by one of the oldest scholarly publications still in print: Philosophical Transactions, established in 1665. To this day, the journal continues to unite all academic disciplines within its pages. It is in this open-minded spirit that we have invited researchers from the University of Zurich’s seven faculties and artists working in a broad variety of media to participate in a multidisciplinary exchange of views.
A large portion of the works on exhibition were created or further developed expressly for Transactions, and around half of the researchers collaborated with the artists responsible for implementing their projects. Finally, the scenography of the exhibition created by Prisca Baumann, Michela Flück und Regula Zuber reveals the underlying references between the exhibits.
For the exhibition, Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens have created two largescale versions of works in their series Each Number Equals One Inhalation and One Exhalation (2016-17). In Organization Chart of the Enterprise (2016) the hierarchy of an entire enterprise unfolds before our eyes, from the managing director down to the production departments. The diagram Worker Productivity Trends in Periods 1 to 24 (2016) shows how productivity increased at the Western Electric Company in Hawthorne (near Chicago) between 1927 and 1932 in one of the most famous experiments in industrial history.
Works presented: Organization Chart- Showing the Influence of Methods, Standards and Work Design of the Operations of the Enterprise and Worker Productivity Trends in Periods 1 to 24 of the First Relay Experiment at Hawthorne.
