art versus capital

Kristian Hornsleth fullfills the idea of Joseph Beuys "art versus capital" to the extreme. Today the value of an artwork is received as an highly profitable investment. The idea of art as human and humane capital is losing its meaning. The symbiosis between ethics and aesthetics is completely lost in the postmodernistic nihlistic marketing of arts.

Von Hornsleth shows with this project the other side of investments, the dark side of the medal. Traditionally a lot of the money of evil businesses like drugs or weapons, or the possibilities of tax shelters were constructed through the art world and possible through the rising prieces of artworks.

The people who keep the capital in societies and profit from societies lost the consciousness of responsibility of capital instead they pose themselves as protegees of artists and literats. In combination with the highly profitable investment it is nothing but a token gesture. Capital should be linked to responsibility. Responsibility is linked to humanism, no responsibilty, no humanism. The project shows the lack of ethics as part of the aesthetics and shows a brillant example for negative dialectics.

Wolf-Günter Thiel, art historian, Berlin, May 2008