The Path /Calea Rust Ingots /Lingouri de rugina

The Path (Calea) / Rust Ingots (Lingouri de rugina), installation, 2009, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst Utrecht
"The global nature of this moment of confusion, on a backdrop of violence and ruin, is claimed in Calea (The Path), produced for the exhibition Surplus Value at BAK. Here the visitors enter a large room by means of a wooden pathway, erected over a mass of rust that covers the entire floor. On one of the walls, a vault-like opening is filled with ingots entirely made of rust. Calea is a multiple signifier, and if we were to add to this hermeneutical exercise an economic reading, the story would get even more complicated. Simultaneously a byproduct of heavy-industry oriented, Fordist societies and a symbol (albeit a solid and real one) of their decline, rust enters the realm of post-Fordist, neoliberal, and post-communist logics both as a loss and as infinite source of capital accumulation. The neoliberal bubble, whose bursting we are in fact now experiencing, was to a large extent the result of the proliferation of profit based on losses, on sub-prime mortgages, unpayyable debts, and negative balance sheets, infinitely multiplied to produce profit out of the heat of multiplying. One could say this was all "built" on the rust of our old industrial society, pregnant with the new society of immaterial capital." excerpt from The History of Us All by Cosmin Costinas, Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor, monographic publication published by BAK and Post Editions, 2009.
Rust Ingots (Lingouri de rugina), installation, 2010, ms Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz

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