If You Are So Smart, Why Ain't You Rich?

Dearest friends and supporters,

it’s been some time since we last kept you updated.

The past month have seen us busy on the Biennale in Marrakech and all of us going back home, wrapping up the exhibition and looking at the next steps.

For all of you that chose a publication as a reward, this will take a bit more time as we aim for a decent book with writings of inspiring people, sketches of the artists, documentation material of the produced works so far and further research that we continue with If You Are So Smart, Why Aint You Rich?

We are not going to give you clear answers but we aspire after inspirations, visions, thoughts, dreams and more adventures.

There are plans to bring the project to Belgium and Berlin. We keep you for sure posted when this becomes more concrete.

The artists and everyone of our team did an amazing job on the first chapter of this project.

And dont forget, it all happened thanks to your generous support!

The postcards and bags have been send out. Please let us know in case you didnt receive it.

Those that chose a dinner with us, will be invited soon, we will contact you to find the right date.

It is our pleasure to share with you some more documentation material of the exhibition we realized in Marrakech.

There is a video interview we did at the opening which you can see here:

And we have a whole set of photo documentation which we shared earlier already through our website and facebook group. But here for you again in case you didnt see this.

Radio Papesse also did a review on the show where you can here Bonaventure Ndikung explaining more and loads of sound excerpts of the show.

http://www.radiopapesse.org/w2d3/v3/view/radiopapesse/notizie–236/index.html?area=5

On our website www.ifyouaresosmartwhyaintyourich.org you can find more.

All the best,

Pauline, Bonaventure, Anneli and Gauthier

Dearest friends and crowdfunders,

First of all we’d like to thank you once again for your support. Without you we couldn’t have made it. All of the artists and curators arrived in Marrakech one week ago and we have been busy building up the exhibition since beginning of february. And tonight is the night!

We wanted to give you an update on our work as you are the ones, who majorly made this project happen for us. In addition you will find some pictures we took throughout our stay here, the building of the exhibition and the artists.

For the ones who are in Marrakech we cordially invite you tonight to our opening at 6.00pm in ESAV (École superieure des artes visuelles). The official opening of the 5th Marrakech Biennale was on the 26th of february and we’re excited to see some of the great work of artists from all over the world.

We’re very grateful to be a part of this. Maybe some of you have been following us on facebook or on our website already, if not we’ve attached some information about the exhibition below.

The exhibition aims to be a reading of the creation, positioning, dissemination, and application of knowledge in the broadest sense, reflecting on the competition between knowledge and wealth through the prism of art. Morocco is a very interesting platform to explore this topic further. We’re working together with locals trying to adapt to the pace and uniqueness of this city. As Europeans you’re considered «rich» right away which makes the title of our exhibition even more challenging or provoking in this context.

More:

The crux of the exhibition If You Are So Smart, Why Ain’t You Rich? is a deliberation on the ’knowledgeable society’ by questioning, through artistic reflection, the place and confluence of knowledge and economy within society. Stemming its impulse from the same-titled piece by minimalist composer and pianist Julius Eastman, the project brings together twelve international artists working primarily with sound installations fathoming, among other subjects, the tug of war between the cognitive, intellectual and economic, financial capital. Eastman’s oeuvre is a glimpse into the hassles prevalent within society, which he bluntly engraves into his timeless scores. 

With its experimental nature, the project also investigates the ’material’ nature and the experience of sound beyond a mere transcription into the ’materiality’ of language. The exhibition explores how sound takes shape, becomes tangible and acquires meaning in society, in politics and economics and more specifically as art. The question that arises at this juncture is how can sound be perceived as a material thing, as an instigator and driving force behind the production of knowledge just like epistemic objects, with which sound shares the same virtues of opacity, abundance and transcendence.

Enshalla! We are very excited for tonight!

Many warm greetings from the whole team ’If You Are So Smart, Why Aint You Rich?’

More images and update to follow.

We have 2 more days left to reach the endgoal!

First of all thank you so much for all the support you gave us.

We feel confident we can make this happen and are looking forward to share our project with you!

Tonight we are presenting our project on the launch event of the new online platform CROWDFUNDING BERLIN in Kulturprojekte Berlin, Klosterstraße 68, Berlin. Our project is selected as the main Berlin project for wemakeit.ch

A new reward has been created: a specially designed If You Are So Smart, Why Aint You Rich? bag that you can achieve for 40 euro.

We are working already on the publication and gathered great ideas and writers, but as we want to include also documentation material of the exhibition and go very deep in the content and design, we will take some time after the exhibition to bring the publication to the level we are looking at.

Please tell all your friends to have a look at our project today and back us up. We cant loose this battle now ;)

All our best wishes and thank you!

We are now at 26 supporters, 36 percent!

It feels great to be supported by all of you, it keeps us pushing and we feel backed up. Lets try to push and get the 100 percent now.

We are planning a fundraising party in a week in Berlin and will need your support there as well to help spread the message!

More info on that very soon.

In the meantime have a look at the new work of one of our artists Anne Duk Hee Jordan. She just finished a new installation Obsidian, part of her Stone Series and you can see a glimpse of it here.

Keep on spreading the word. Your support means a lot to us.

Thank you!