Relational Economies: Labor over Capital, November 21, 2019 - March 7, 2020
Stefanos Tsivopoulos, History Zero, 2013. Video still. Courtesy of the artist and Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani. [image description: A woman in a blue kimono with pink and white flowers sits on a dark red, studded leather chair with her hand holding an origami flower made from Euro notes on a brown table. On the brown table are other Euro notes and two paper flowers in a vase. Behind her is a large photograph with two nude women sitting on a gray couch.]
The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation presented Relational Economies: Labor over Capital, from November 21, 2019 to March 7th, 2020. The exhibition reflected on the impacts of economic crises on different parts of the world and sectors of society, prompting a dialogue about alternatives to the trappings of capitalism. Artists in the exhibition included mayfield brooks, Tania Candiani, Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkáčová, Danilo Correale, Stephanie Syjuco, and Stefanos Tsivopoulos.
The third installment of Revolutionary Cycles, a two-year series of exhibitions that explore art’s social and political potential in uncertain times, Relational Economies examined how the economic outcomes of global capitalism transcend borders, while worker’s rights and compensation continue to deteriorate. The artworks in the exhibition collectively focused on the hierarchies of labor and economic status, choreographies of work, the interrelationships between disparate wealth positions, alternative economies and currencies, and the ways in which labor conditions contribute to culture at large.