Site-specific intervention for Negozio project curated by Collettivo damp, Portici 2024.

Materials: artist’s coefficients, reproduction of a portrait (printed on forex), blackboard painting, chalks, LED sign.

Images: installation views and details, pics by Alessandro Armento

The intervention realised for the shop window of the Negozio project investigates the mechanisms of value attribution by superimposing the bureaucratic mechanisms of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies on those of the art market. The intervention makes public information, generally private, on the prices at which certain artists’ works were sold, creating a direct relationship between the coefficients and the work of an artist at a given point in his or her career. The information was gathered through a survey of auction results and interviews with artists and collectors. Through the device of the showcase, the artist offers a demodé portrait service: the value of the portrait is defined and negotiated on the basis of an artist’s coefficient proportional to the ISEE of the person portrayed. A drawing, a text and some practical information give passers-by the coordinates to activate the service.