trade

Free Trade Royal Exchange

admin — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:28:22 +0000

Royal Exchange painting
Free Trade 2003

Free Trade detail ceramic

admin — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:26:08 +0000

Ceramic prices
Free Trade 2003

Trade

admin — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:04:26 +0000

Sub-Title

End Date

19 Aug 2001

Start Date

16 Jun 2001

Location

Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

Body

On the eastern edge of 'old europe' lies a deregulated strip astride the Polish Ukrainian border. And it is here that traders, traffickers and smugglers from all over the previous Soviet Block congregate. It was formerly the first zone with access to a convertible 'hard' currency.

In the early years of 'free' trade -the 1990's- these fledgling merchants brought their own belongings to sell; after accumulating a small amount of capital they progressed to supplying goods made from their home states - hopelessly cast tractor parts, blunt saw blades, terrible plastic bowls and the like. The outward flow of home-made products and the resulting exchange of currency, slowly enabled the production and distribution of local goods to be replaced with the manufacture of commodities already available in markets further west.

Tentative ribbons of trade hardened into complex supply chains; small objects with a high unit price - software, audio CD's, DVD's, watches, 'branded' or electronic goods are favored; all those things where there is a lot of value in a small space.

In keeping with the texture of this border zone, the market in Przemysl -as though in a caricature of all markets everywhere- only deals in surrogate goods, nothing is ever as it seems. All manner of 'brand', 'label' or copyright designs are available, some closer to the authentic examples than others. Stolen software code and unauthorized cloning, jostle with 'Mike' trainers and 'Addidos' sports clothing, as subtly altered branded goods merge with the carelessly copied. And the market, like the goods it trades, is provisional. Regular merchants hire the 'sharks', lockable corrugated steel containers to store, display and sell goods from. Novice tradeers utilise the display space offered by unfolding a camping bed, their stock stored in bags made from nylon grain sacks, and the whole 'shop' is attached to trolley wheels with elastic 'bungee' straps; the essence of trade encapsulated.

For all its rudimentary nature, the market in Przemysl collapses down two of the architectural models bequeathed to Europe by its classical heritage. The forum, a space intended for the exchange of goods and services is the root of the commerce itself, by conducting trade in a little used football stadium the market also appropriates the amphitheatre, the space of public spectacle. And it's here that Przemysl excels, it unconsciously connects the ancient roots of trade, with its modern incarnation as popular entertainment.

Buy the book/catalogue Trade: Wares, Ways and Values in World Trade Today Published by Scalo, Germany ISBN 3-908247-53-5 at Artwords

and visit Fotomuseum Winterthur

Free Trade Spread

admin — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 20:17:53 +0000

Installation
Free Trade, Manchester 2003

Free Trade Trafford park

admin — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 20:17:23 +0000

Great Exhibition
Trafford Park, Manchester 2002

Free Trade Model

admin — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 20:16:49 +0000

Installation planning
Free Trade, Manchester 2003

Free Trade Films

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Film Stills
Free Trade, Manchester 2003

Free Trade Cover

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cover
Free Trade, Manchester 2003

Reflective Practice

admin — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 08:58:15 +0000

Reflective Practice

Dan Smith's essay for the catalogue of the project Free Trade

The footnotes are missing

Gallery 9 occupies a key position in the newly reopened Manchester Art Gallery. It looks unassuming enough, a room that amounts to little more than an antechamber between the grand staircase leading up from the main entrance and the sumptuously arranged collections of nineteenth-century works that populate the first floor. However, it is inevitably the focus of much of the traffic that passes through the building, a pivotal location on the potential routes that visitors might take. Many - if not most - visitors would pass through Gallery 9, and would probably do so as either the first or last of the galleries that they encountered. Gallery 9 is a point at which the types of experiences made possible within the rest of this museum may be subtly influenced, altered or determined. That museums in general are spaces which frame and condition certain modes of behaviour and experience has already been proposed and much discussed (particularly within the field of Museum Studies). One aspect of this is addressed in an essay by the artist Julian Walker, in which he refers to the fact that some museums will insist that visitorsâ€™ bags be left in a cloakroom. This insistence, he suggests, is not for the convenience of the visitor, but rather an assertion of the importance of objects on display over a visitorâ€™s personal belongings:

Art Wealth and Riches

admin — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:40:15 +0000

Art, Wealth and Riches

By William Morris

A lecture by writer and critic William Morris, was first delivered at a joint conversazione of Manchester Societies at the Royal Institution, Manchester 6th March 1883.This version was redelivered by actor Steve Whitehouse, on the 10th November 2003 as part of Free Trade and is reprinted in the catalogue.

Art, Wealth, and Riches are the words I have written at the head of this paper. Some of you may think that the two latter words, wealth and riches, are tautologous; but I cannot admit it. In truth these are no real synonyms in any language, I mean unless in the case of words borrowed from another tongue; and in the early days of our own language no one would have thought of using the word rich as a synonym for wealthy. He would have understood a wealthy man to mean one who had plentiful livelihood, and a rich man one who had great dominion over his fellow-men. Alexander the Rich, Canute the Rich, Alfred the Rich; these are familiar words enough in the early literature of the North; the adjective would scarcely be used except of a great king or chief, a man pre-eminent above other kings and chiefs. Now, without being a stickler for etymological accuracy, I must say that I think there are cases where modern languages have lost power by confusing two words into one meaning, and that this is one of them. I shall ask your leave therefore to use the words wealth and riches somewhat in the way in which our forefathers did, and to understand wealth as signifying the means of living a decent life, and riches the means for exercising dominion over other people. Thus understood the words are widely different to my mind; yet, indeed, if you say that the difference is but one of degree I must needs admit it; just so it is between the shepherdâ€™s dog and the wolf. Their respective views on the subject of mutton differ only in degree.

trade

Free Trade Royal Exchange

Free Trade detail ceramic

Trade

Sub-Title

End Date

Start Date

Location

Body

Related Films

Related Projects

Related Publications

Free Trade Spread

Free Trade Trafford park

Free Trade Model

Free Trade Films

Free Trade Cover

Reflective Practice

Reflective Practice

Art Wealth and Riches

Art, Wealth and Riches