The Soul of Money: Navigating the Cheque Points of the Art Market

The phenomenon of money: we are all part of it, whether we like it or not. The involvement of money within art itself is the primary focus of Prague’s DOX Centre for Contemporary Art’s latest exhibition ‘The Soul of Money’

Exploring the effect and repercussions of a society driven by economic wealth, on-site installations and videos, musings of Theodore Adorno and George Soros, as well as references from artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn on the story behind the art confiscated and sold off by the Nazis, reveal an insight to the value of transactions lying at the very centre of the art market.

The Soul of Money does however, also discuss the benefits of money and capitalism, and how we have gained as a society from it. There are quotes imposed on the walls which comment on the stability of capitalism but also the flaws we face. There is a powerful reference to what George Soros discusses in ‘The Crisis of Global Capitalism’ (1998) in which he says: ‘The system is deeply flawed. As long as Capitalism remains triumphant, the pursuit of money overrides all other social considerations.’

Curator of the exhibition and the mind behind the concept, Leos Valka, discusses the complexity behind the influence of money: ‘We are all vulnerable to it and it runs in the fears of many. We are all dealing with money all the time, from the medieval age of trading with goods in their pockets to the reality of what our economy has become, which is a divided one.’

‘We are more interested with the reality of money. Everybody has their own private economy.’ The exhibition explores exactly that. How we all have our own bubble concerning our own economical affairs, but how this is dictated from a far more omnipotent force.

The photographs by British photographer Richard Jones named ‘Kidney Island’ show the Philippine organ trade and how some personal economical situations are so desperate that they are willing to sell their organs. One photo shows a line of men with a devastating scar where the kidney extraction operation took place. Another sequence of Jones’ photographs shows the sex workers who work on the outskirts of Rome, standing next to their mattresses beneath a tree. It is this focus on how personal economy can be so distorted in comparison to the unprecedented wealth of others where the exhibition really comes alive.

On the subject of art, as stated by Theodore Adorno: ‘A work of visual art is an absolute commodity, a fetish that is appraised in money because it is a unique original.’ Leos Valka’s response to money’s involvement with art refers to this and art as an industry. He discusses: ‘The art world is like any other, there is demand, supply, distribution and all the stages of economical transactions involved. The art society likes to see themselves as above the commercial world, but we act out in the same way, although what is being discussed differs.’

The Soul of Money runs at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art , Prague until June 6th

Lucy Palfreeman