You are cordially invited to the installation.
Sincerely yours
Gue Schmidt (c/o MAG3)
"Sheer brutal power is becoming the real god of time and to the extent that this power is increasing, the capitulation of thought to fact is revealed." (Herbert Marcuse, Reason and Revolution, p 357)
Within the framework of:
Welcome to the deluxe precariat EL EDEN at SVA
SVA -Social Venture Analyses
RHIZOM
Jakoministraße 16, 1st floor
8010 Graz, Austria, Europe
Opening: 15/05, 7 p.m.
Duration: 15/05 - 16/05/2014
We and the subjective exchange value - or is there any relation between value and dignity?
A selection of participants in the project SVA - Social Venture Analyses as well as other victims of the prevailing social and political indifference have been photographically portrayed.
These photos - developed in 70x100 format in black and white - have been installed on the floor of one of the rooms of RHIZOM in the laboratory.
By being forced to walk on these images, visitors as well as participants inevitably damage their own image as well as that of others.
On the work of Gue Schmidt:On undignified dignityIn article 2 of the Austrian constitution it is stated," Human dignity is inviolable. All human beings are equal regardless of gender, skin colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or political opinion, membership of a national minority, of property, age or sexual orientation."
Only by using this sentence the state shows that it - "the state" - does not take itself and its legislation seriously.
"Dignity" is as vague a concept as "freedom". "Freedom"? For whom? In whose interest?
Freedom for a few so that they can enjoy the privileges of rampant capitalism at the price of the freedom to starve to death for hundreds of millions?
The same is true of the concept of "dignity", which is laid down as a fundamental right in almost every state constitution in this world, but which has not been made a reality anywhere yet.
This is due to the fact that "dignity" is regarded as a moral and not an economic term, similarly hypocritical as "tolerance" (which is a form of arrogance).
Whoever lacks sufficient food, a secure income and a roof over their heads does not even "own" the basic prerequisites for a "dignified" life.
Gerald Grassl
