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Capital

admin — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:58:00 +0000

Sub-Title

Date of Publication

April 2001

Location

Publisher

Tate Publishing: London

Designer

Stephen Coates

Body

The publication builds a context from which the giving [issue] of the Capital: Gift can be located. The book contains photographs taken during our research of the Bank and Tate, commissioned essays, complemented by previously unpublished archival material and a ‘sketch’ history of both institutions.

Contents

Directors Foreword

On the eve of Tate Modern’s first anniversary it is, more than ever before, important to remember that the building by no means equals the museum. Whilst we build galleries for modern and contemporary art because the majority of art work is (or has been) made with the gallery space, or ‘white cube”, as the ideal viewing place, at the same time artistic practice of the last forty years has in many ways undermined the hegemony of the gallery building.

During the recent past many artists have moved from the production of objects and images to exploring what perhaps can be called a zone or a field, within which a variety of activities (including drawing, painting and sculpture) produce and reveal meanings, power systems and values. This process does not mean that the museum now has a less important role, only that its role has shifted and expanded into that of being a central operator or, perhaps hub in a complex cultural field.

I can think of no other artists that have ventured into investigating the nature and role of the museum and the category of activities in society we call art with such a mix of curiosity, clarity and radicality as Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska. I am therefore delighted that they agreed to inaugurate the Contemporary Interventions programme at Tate Modern – a programme of annual commissions through which we enable artists and others to investigate and comment on the core practice of the museum. With their project Capital, the artists have cut through and laid bare layer upon layer of micro- and macro-systems of structure meaning and value in the museum, and the broader context in which it operates; from its secret and private spaces, via its location on Bankside, to its place in society’s system of value, production and exchange.

Capital, as an artwork, is triggered by an act of giving, this book and by a series of discussions curated by the artists. It has been in planning for several years and has been an intensely collaborative project. I would like to thank Neil and Marysia for their tenacious ambition, inspired thinking and meticulous attention to detail in realising such a complex venture. I would also like to add my personal thanks to the many individuals, listed in Neil and Marysia’s own acknowledgements, at Tate Modern and the Bank of England who have supported the genesis and relisation of Capital, to the distinguished writers who have contributed to the book, the speakers participating in the seminar series, and to the design team at August.

Capital is a key part of Tate Modern: collection 2001 which is generously supported by BT

Lars Nitve Director of Tate Modern

Introduction
Frances Morris, Senior curator Tate Modern
Situates Capital in relation to other work by Neil and Marysia, and suggest why the issues raised by the project hold significance for art and its practices.

History of the Bank
John Keyworth, curator Bank of England Museum
Written as a guide to the Bank, it chronologically maps it's history from the middle of 17th century to the present day.

Elsewhere
Prof Nigel Thrift, Department of Geographical Science at University of Bristol
Nigel Thrift proposes that culture is becoming increasingly insubstantial in its manifestations. He suggests that the Bank and Tate act as underwriters, guaranteeing the increasingly abstract representation of values that circulate through and between them.

The Aesthetics of Substance
Prof Marilyn Strathern, Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University

The essay focusses on the exchange practices of two communities in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, and how those practices are reflected in the desired body type of the inhabitants. Fat body type implies stored wealth, thin body type suggests distributed wealth, and the essay opens and closes with a horrific image - a body born into the wrong community. Encapsulated are the three conditions of any enonomy; stored, distributed and squandered resources.

I Owe You Nothing
Prof Jeremy Valentine, Department of Sociology, St Andrews University, Edinburgh

With references range from Aristotle to Derrida and Adam Smith to Susan Stewart; the essay reveals how receiving a gift triggers the obligation to reciprocate, the countergift necessitates a return and so on, endlessly. The twin themes of the gift and debt are located as the heart of the respective institutions, and reveals the gesture of the gift as the core of the Capital itself.

A Short History of the Tate
Francis Spalding

This text outlines a brief history of the Tate, from its opening in 1897 to the present day.

Supporting material (extracts from)

Charles Dickens Great Expectations, Dombey and Son and David Copperfield Robert B.Sherman lyrics for Mary Poppins, and short quotations from:
Susan Stewart, John Locke, Adam Smith, Aristotle, David Hume, Emile Benveniste, Karl Marx, Herodotus, Marcel Mauss and Angela Carter

To buy the book from artwords, or tate online

A text, An Economy of Love reflects on and gives some historical and cultural context for Capital. It was first printed in Economising Culture: On The (Digital) Culture Industry in 2004.

Description

ISBN/ASIN

1 85437 352 8

ArtWords Link

capital

admin — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 14:57:11 +0000

Sub-Title

curated by Frances Morris

End Date

28 Sep 2001

Start Date

1 May 2001

Location

Tate Modern and the Bank of England Museum; London

Body

Capital is a series of encounters between two iconic institutions and the economies they animate; the Tate and the Bank of England.

In the Reading Point on Level 5 West at Tate Modern and in the Bank of England Museum, at unspecified times during the day a visitor is approached by a gallery or museum official. "This is for you" accompanies the presentation of a beautifully packaged gift -a limited edition print- produced by the artists.

The Bank of England is the banker to the whole British financial system, and also plays a major role in structuring global monetary relations. It regulates the financial economy by managing the availability and price of debt. As the lender of last resort the Bank guarantees and distributes the necessary trust, to secure the various interlocking domestic and foreign financial markets.

On the other side of the same coin, is it possible to situate the Tate - through its constant expansion- as the principle institution in a parallel symbolic economy. Like the Bank, Tate connects with a vast network of institutions both nationally and internationally, making-up the global economy of art. Does the Tate guarantee the integrity and value of the artworks and images it distributes within this economy?

Perhaps the traditional missrecognition of the similarities between both places has its origin in historical accident. The Bank of England was founded upon a debt - a loan to the King in 1674 - while Tate was founded by a gift - from Henry Tate in 1897.

Amid enormous speculation about the function of the gift in the social sciences, anthropology agrees on one thing; receiving a gift triggers the obligation to reciprocate, the counter gift necessitates a return and so on. An endless economy without apparent origin. If the gift and its subsequent debt, or a debt and a subsequent gift animate networks of social obligation, how are these forces structured and regulated?

Is the role of the Bank and the Tate to make these economies, and to make these economies visible?

The honorific Public Gift dominates the economies of our cultural institutions - gifts of artworks, collections, money and services- and as with all gifts, it’s characterised by the mis-recognition of the debt it entails. Or more often, the nature of the return is left unspecified. In an economy of value represented by the movement of money, a debt guarantees a contractual return with interest. That’s why a loan is never recognised as a gift.

Capital was detonated through the issue of gift, but was also accompanied by the publication of a book and a series of seminars exploring some of the themes: that of Gift, Economy and Trust.

Read our reflection on the project An Economy of Love. Or read a published conversation exploring some of the themes in Accruing Interest

****

Capital: Book

A book accompanying the project, folds texts and photographs of both institutions around the themes of gift, economy and trust -with forword by Lars Nitve and essays by Frances Morris, Marilyn Strathern, Jeremy Valentine and Nigel Thrift.

****

Capital: Seminars

All seminars were curated with Jeremy Valentine, and chaired by [the late] Paul Hirst former director of the London Consortium

Gift: 13th May

Marilyn Strathern Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University
John Urry Department of Sociology, Lancaster University

Speculation about the function of the Gift generated by anthropology agrees on one thing. Receiving a gift triggers the obligationto reciprocate. If networks of social obligation are animated by the Gift and its Debt, what is the role of the Bank and the Tate in participating in these economies, and making them visible?

watch the archived web-cast seminar at Tate::
Capital seminar 1: Gift

Economy: Sun 20th May

Jean-Joseph Goux French Studies, Rice University, Houston USA
Scott Wilson Institute for Cultural Research, Lancaster University

The existence of a financial and cultural economy, is in many cases taken as measure and test of reality - 'it's the economy, stupid'. But is there an original sense of economy, that would designate a purely financial, or purely aesthetic function in which 'other' obligations would play no part?

watch the archived web-cast seminar at Tate:
Capital seminar 2: Economy

Trust: 27th May

Geoff Mulgan co-founder of Demos, adviser to the Prime Minister's Policy Unit
Nigel Thrift School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol

Modern money and artworks evolve as ever more sophisticated technologies, requiring elaborate discourses to interpret them. Both are able to facilitate our experience of daily life, and connect globally with unimaginable force and complexity. How then do we trust the values that circulate within these economies?

watch the archived web-cast seminar at Tate:
Capital seminar 3: Trust

****

A documentary of Capital was exhibited as part of the touring exhibitionThe Gift: Generous Offerings, Threatening Hospitality in 2003, and as part of Zero Interest/ Interessi zero at the gallaria civica di arte contemporanea in Trento, Italy 12th March 29th May 2005

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