(In)valuable, (in)visible – Eva Kreuger

(In)valuable, (in)visible: the circular archive and value production in artistic spaces

“Hi Eva, Your number was on the card on your studio door.” “I hardly ever see you anymore and my space is starting to get too small.” “So I thought hmmm maybe I can expand into Eva’s space?” “Are you still using the room?” “Or if you use the space very little?” “I work here a lot.” Greetings M.

The question from my studio neighbor with a small business. Now I wonder what little is? When is work valuable enough to take up space? How much time is enough then? Is the art I make less important or valuable? The questions I ask myself as an artist are inherently politically charged.

–

The old printer in my studio fills the space with new images, stacks of prints with little physical value. Meanwhile, every little mistake in the system is a way to make each new copy unique.

The maker, the studio, and the archive influence each other. The space is filled by the archive, the studio shapes the collections. The light through the window, the view, they remind the inside space of the time that passes outside. 

In the circular archive, the photos are edited again and again, from flat images to three-dimensional works and back again, moving through space. Old memories transform into ink and paper and mingle with my questions.

–

This raises questions such as, how do capitalism and gender influence an art practice? What do archiving, space and circularity have to do with each other? What is valuable? For whom? What is not political?

The neighbor’s business phone call is distracting, it penetrates the wall and fills the room with sound. It raises the question: what are we taking with us, and where do we want to get rid of?

At Nieuwe Vide

During the exhibition at Nieuwe Vide, Kreuger’s work will continue to take on new forms and give visibility to a production process that takes up more and more space. An archive moves through the space via a circular arrangement of printers and scanners.

This project is supported by the Mondriaan Fund.