In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?

In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?

In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?

In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?

In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?

In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?

In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?

In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?

In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?

In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?

In the presented video installation, the artist has transformed himself into a tousled and unkempt gentleman, wrapped in the solitude of his madness, while warming his hands over the last fire. His shirt is still snow white, his suit communicates an elevated status, and the tongues of fire are licking the 100 Euro banknotes. They are reluctantly burning, even barely providing heat. This fascinating – and at the same time pitiful – sight is far from demonstrating a rebellious gesture or ecstatic Bataillean expenditure. Instead, it recalls the Geist of an elegant and worn-out refrain in Mr. X's Aria: I am tired of warming myself at a strange fire… but where is the heart that will love me? This character appears like an anachronistic version of Raskolnikov, playing an Idiot in the heterotopy of the Tarkovsky's Zone, where outdated wishes come true but bring no consolation. Thus, the focal point of the exhibition Shifting Values, by Martin Ecker, can be located somewhere within the global horizon of the ironico-critical depiction of the vacuity and alienation of capitalist world, between the misery of glamour and the glamour of misery. Ten years ago, burning cash was a disturbing image in a prophetic script Cashfire by Vladmir Sorokin, in which the depiction of inscrutable financial and political manipulations in a globalized world assumed somewhat surreal and distorted undertones. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that engulfed the global marketplace, burning cash may have accumulated even more cache as a provocative and fascinating gesture. The physical act of annihilating banknotes in an archaic fire reveals the socially constructed, abstract nature of paper money. It has such relentless power over us, and simultaneously allows us to face the void: the symbolic totality of inescapable economic mechanisms. Martin Ecker is a man with a fascinating lifestory. His abstract paintings seem to capture the infinite pursuit of their own source of power, rather than some deep, eternal meanings. They embark on a continuous proliferation of affective intensities and vibrating traces. Real gold and silver dissolve in their imitation and form rhythmically shimmering landscapes pulsating with nuanced gradations, scorches, and abrasion marks. The corporeality of curdled paint requires tactile vision. But there is also a philosophical thrill built into abstraction here; these undulating colour fields resonate with a certain kind of a collective unconsciousness, which Martin Ecker himself wants to tame by giving titles to his works. And so value becomes mazing, breaking through, erupting in front of a larger theoretical background – one of a value stucture and symbolic exchange – which lies at the very heart of modern economic alchemy. Nevertheless, the artist's statements concerning the conflict between materialism and postmaterialism (the latter term referring to Ronald Inglehart), which he inscribes in his work, appear to be inherently ambiguous. Absorb yourself in the infinity of these interactions of colours and light pings: the temptation of a pure vision is irresistable and compels one to recall the writings of Karl Marx. Gold and silver, Marx wrote, appeared to people to be something like a natural light, concealed in the earth‘s depths. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, any symbolization is a result of some initial sensual experience. So sweat of the sun and the tears of the moon, which transcend the paint reliefs of Ecker's paintings, lure with a spellbinding light; although we recognize its deceiving nature. This is how the sensation wipes the obvious critico-ideological project away. But it also begs the question: doesn't economy also work in a similar way?