We are pleased to present the group exhibition State of High Performance with works by Jakub Choma, Claire Fontaine, Kasia Fudakowski, Martin Kohout, Ariane Loze and Pilvi Takala from September 1 to December 5, 2021 at basis e.V.

To-do lists, time management, constant performance improvement, stress control...
The credo for a high level of productivity is omnipresent in our present society. Yet what is actually meant by productivity? Why do we seem to be committed to this compulsion to be constantly productive and to what extent does this pressure for efficiency also affect artistic production?

The group exhibition "State of High Performance" highlights facets of this highly complex and seemingly ubiquitous topic of productivity and its structures. It features artistic works by Jakub Choma, Claire Fontaine, Kasia Fudakowski, Martin Kohout, Ariane Loze and Pilvi Takala, which investigate the concept of productivity in an ironic, affirmative, resistant or critical way.

They not only shed light on production conditions and processes designed for high productivity, but also ask how efficiency can be determined at all. The extent to which intangable or artistic work is also subordinated to these patterns plays just as much a role as being constantly available in a productive world driven by competing forces. What effects this has on our mental constitution and social relationships and what reactions an alleged denial of productivity brings with it also come into focus.

By shifting the need for productivity to an individual artistic working method, deliberately exaggerating the principle and its consequences, or consistently reversing it, the works on display not only reflect the structures of that precept, but also encourage a critical examination of the urge for productivity and its consequences.

The programme accompanying the exhibition consists of a lecture by sociologist Prof. Dr. Ulrich Bröckling on the development of the entrepreneurial self, the performance Business Happiness by Ariane Loze and an artist talk with Claire Fontaine.

curated by Christin Müller

Kindly supported by: