Please Gamble Responsibly (2021), HD Video, 16’

Doug Fishbone’s latest video work, Please Gamble Responsibly, was made for his eponymous solo exhibition at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland, in the summer of 2021. Originally shown inside a vast architectural model of a derelict estate in the middle of the museum, the project was conceived as a free-wheeling meditation on money and property, inspired by the phenomenon of “ghost estates” – housing developments built during the speculative Celtic Tiger boom of the Irish property market, and left unfinished when the credit bubble fueling it ground to a halt in 2008. Such ghost estates exist the world over, while the perpetually increasing unaffordability of housing is becoming equally ubiquitous. As the gap between rich and poor perpetually widens, and money, in its many new digital incarnations, becomes more and more conceptual, Fishbone puts his finger on the pulse of what is, apart from the COVID pandemic, becoming one of the greatest emergencies in the western world. And particularly in Berlin, where anti-gentrification protests are practically a daily occurrence, and where the city government’s attempts to stop speculation development are repeatedly overturned at the federal level, Please Gamble Responsibly takes on a keen resonance.

“Please Gamble Responsibly examines how instability and collapse are coded into the very way modern money works – from the Nixon Shock in 1971 to the ongoing corporate bailouts of today – and unmasks a global economic system which is far dodgier than it seems. The film treats a populist and relevant subject – the unaffordability of housing in much of the Western world – from an unexpected and humorous vantage point.” – Doug Fishbone

Doug Fishbone (b. 1969 in New York, USA. Lives and works in London, England.)

Described as a “stand-up conceptual artist”, Doug Fishbone’s work is heavily influenced by the rhythms of stand-up comedy. Fishbone examines some of the more problematic aspects of contemporary life in an amusing and disarming way, using satire and humor in his films, performances and installations to critically examine consumer culture, mass media, and the relativity of perception and context. In his video and performance practice, he uses images found online to illustrate and undermine his own confrontational monologues on contemporary media and its corollary, the underground and avant-garde. Fishbone’s conceptual practice is wide-ranging, using many different forms of popular culture in unexpected ways. He earned a BA from Amherst College in the US in 1991, and MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London in 2003, and was awarded the Beck’s Futures Prize for Student Film and Video in 2004.

Selected solo exhibitions include: Tate Britain, London (2010-11), Rokeby, London (2010-11, and 2009), Gimpel Fils, London (2006) and 30,000 Bananas in Trafalgar Square (2004). Selected group exhibitions include Rude Britannia: British Comic Art, Tate Britain (2010), Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea (2008); Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery (2008), London; British Art Show 6, Newcastle, Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester (2006). Fishbone’s film project Elmina (2010) was premiered at Tate Britain in 2010, and was nominated for an African Movie Academy Award in Nigeria in 2011. Other notable projects include: the Mayor of London’s Thames Festival, London, UK (2013, 2014), and the Look Again Festival, Aberdeen, Scotland (2016). He curated Doug Fishbone’s Leisure Land Golf at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), and realised his solo project Made in China at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (2015). Artificial Intelligence was commissioned by Werkleitz Festival, Halle, Germany (2018); and he showed a specially commissioned video The Jewish Question in the exhibition Jews, Money, Myth at the Jewish Museum, London (2019). Fishbone teaches and performs at major international and UK venues, including: the Hayward Gallery, ICA London, the Southbank Centre, Hauser and Wirth Somerset, and the Royal Academy. Fishbone is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Yinka Shonibare Foundation, an organization which fosters international cultural exchange.

Daemon (2020), 4K video, 12’

“Daemon (Greek: daimon, guardian spirit) stems from reflections on the future of humankind and its relationship with nature. Karjalainen’s film navigates the ground between real and unreal, abstract and absurd as it unravels online comments of trolls criticising climate action. Running on the logic of a dream or a nightmare, the film stirs thoughts about the future of humankind. Will we be able to act as a united front in the face of a disaster or will we become paralysed, waiting for some supernatural force to step in?”

– Hannu Karjalainen

Hannu Karjalainen (b. 1978 in Finland. Lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.)

Hannu Karjalainen is an award winning visual artist, filmmaker photographer, and composer based in Helsinki, Finland. Karjalainen develops his video practice from a grounding in photography and his training in the Helsinki School at Alver Alto University, Finland. Karjalainen’s experimental films, video installation work, photography and sound art have been shown in numerous exhibitions in Finland and internationally, including: UMMA University of Michigan Museum of Art, International Biennale of Photography Bogota, Scandinavia House New York, Fotogalleriet Oslo and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art Helsinki. Karjalainen won the main prize at the Turku Biennial in 2007, and was chosen as Finnish Young Artist of the Year in 2009. Karjalainen’s latest album LUXE was released by Berlin based Karaoke Kalk in late 2020. Karjalainen has collaborated with Simon Scott (of Slowdive), Dakota Suite and Monolyth & Cobalt among others.

Dig (2020), HD Video, 5’32”

“In the video Dig you can see a group of young men working hard trying to dig out heavy stones. It is not clear where this action takes place. It might be a ruin house after an earthquake or maybe this house was bombed. The men look very stressed and they keep on working and digging out the stones. The action repeats itself in a never ending loop and the beholder never knows what is the reason they are digging, or will they ever find something. This action becomes more and more familiar to the beholder as he might seen it on the news it becomes part of our life but usually it happens in a faraway place.”

– Shahar Marcus

Shahar Marcus (b. 1971 in Petach Tikva, Israel. Lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel.)

Shahar Marcus primarily works in the medium of performance and video art. His initial works dealt with the exploration of his own body and its limitations – incorporating various perishable materials, such as dough, juice and ice. His body served as an instrument, a platform on which various ‘experiments’ took place: lying on the operating table, set on fire, dressed in a ‘bread suit’, and more. His recurrent use of bread as a symbol of essentiality and survival is juxtaposed with military symbols. By frequently working with food, a perishable, momentary substance, and by turning it into a piece of clothing or a set, Marcus also flirts with art history; transforming arbitrary objects and materials into something immortal and everlasting. His most recent works deal with local political issues, by approaching iconic Israeli landmarks with a critical and humorous point of view. Marcus reflects on his own heritage, environment and the creation of local historical narratives. His works are influenced by the visual language of cinematography along with familiar themes and tributes to the history of art.

Shahar Marcus studied Linguistics and History of Art at the University of Tel Aviv. He has exhibited at numerous art institutions, both in Israel and internationally, including: Tate Modern, London; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Petach Tikva Museum of Art; Copenhagen Kunsthalle; Moscow Biennale; Poznan Biennale; Moscow Museum of Modern Art; The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg; and at other art venues in Poland, Italy, Germany, Georgia, Japan, USA, and Turkey. His works are in many important museum collections, such as: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Petach Tikva Museum of Art; and others.

ZWEI (2021), video performance, 5’09”

“This installation tells the story of two men bound together in a relationship of dependence but it can also be read as a social metaphor as individuals, communities and societies have always been linked to each other by a relationship of mutual dependence, where, in a conscious or unconscious way, one person’s action has an impact on the other, even if this does not result always evident. The work consists of a vertically mounted wall monitor and shows a very high wall. From the upper edge of the wall hangs a rope that falls along both sides of the wall. A man hangs from each end of the rope. The two men do not seem to know each other’s presence, because each in his own way is busy fighting not to fall. Several meters separate them both from the ground and the top. From time to time the two men look frightened downwards and upwards, then try to climb up, without success. If one pulls the rope towards himself, the other is pulled slightly upwards.”

– Christian Niccoli

Christian Niccoli (b. 1976 in Südtirol, Italy. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.)

Christian Niccoli’s videos and video installations have been presented internationally in museums and institutions, among others at: Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria (2006); Phönix Art – Harald Falckenberg Collection, Hamburg, Germany (2002); Cinémathèque québécoise, Montreal, Canada (2015); Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2012); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany (2009,2004); 8th Baltic Biennial of Contemporary Art, Szczecin, Poland (2009); 4th Biennial del Fin del Mundo Valparaiso, Chile (2015); Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art, Yerevan, Armenia (2010); Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France (2015), Museion – Museum für Moderne und Zeitgenössiche Kunst, Blzano, Italy (2020); Museum Kunst der Westküste, Alkersum, Germany (2020); Alfred Ehrhard Stiftung, Berlin (2021). Christian Niccoli’s works are in several public collections, including; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Szczecin, Poland; Kunstsammlung der Autonomen Provinz Südtirol, Italy; Collezione Farnesina – Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Rome, Italy; and Museion – Museum of Modern and Conemporary Art, Bolzano, Italy. Niccoli’s works have been presented at several festivals, including: Transmediale, Berlin, Germany (2009); Hamburg Short Film Festival, Hamburg, Germany (2008); Oblíqua – International Exhibition of Video Art & Experimental Cinema, Lisbon, Portugal (2016); 16th WRO Media Art Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland (2015); Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany (2015); Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, Greece (2015); Facade Video Festival Plovdiv, Bulgaria (2014); and Video Art Festival Miden, Kalamata, Greece (2014). In 2006 Christian Niccoli was an artist in residence at Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, Italy, and in 2008-09 he participated in the International Studio Program at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany.