Mitchell Anderson | The Poverty Business. Art is a Class Act! | Helmhaus Zurich

24 January - 23 March 2025

 

With Ariane Andereggen, Mitchell Anderson, La Bibliothèque des ReadyMades*, Katalin Branner, Nicolle Bussien, Kerim El-Mokdad, Marc Elsener, Kirila Faeh, Andy Hermann, Stefanie Knobel, Kunst braucht Kohle, David Morrison, Teresa Sakura, Linus Scherer, StirnimannStojanovic, STUDIO FUMO, TOMTOM, Artemis Tsakiri, Selina Zürrer

 

Curated by Katalin Branner and Daniel Morgenthaler in collaboration  with Cristiana Contu and Medea Hoch

 

*curated by Anaïs Wenger and Daniel Morgenthaler, with works by Vitor Silva, Tourefam, Teddy, Suan, Snoby, Sapo, Sanchez, R. Imobilière, Peter Wooders, Myriam, Michel Ginier, Mattel, Maria H., Luthi & Papaloïzos, Kurtz, Joëlle Papillon, Joëlle Flumet, Govelvan, Gianni, Emma, Dépêche Mode, CHT, Antoine, Antonio Mistro, Alain ou Australie

 

There is no poverty in Zurich; and Switzerland is a classless society – or so they say. Of course that is not true. If you want to see poverty in Zurich, stop by the Helmhaus on a cold night and you may well see a rough sleeper under the portico. Furthermore, upward mobility in our supposedly classless society is actually more difficult than in other countries. This is borne out by the statistics that the designer Vela Arbutina compiled for our exhibition graphics. How do artists tackle the theme of poverty? How do they cope with their own poverty? And how can artists make invisible class distinctions visible? This exhibition on a sociopolitical subject created on the initiative of guest curator Katalin Branner attempts to answer these and other questions by taking a closer look at past, present and future. It also examines what business has to do with poverty and shows that there has always been a poverty business – that is, people who make money out of society’s poor. Art is a class act when it comes to exposing such surprising connections. 

January 24, 2025