PAWNSHOP
Beginning in October, our storefront on Ludlow Street will temporarily become a pawnshop dedicated to the pawning of artworks. PAWNSHOP will open at noon on Monday, October 1st and will have regular business hours of Tuesday through Saturday, 12-6 pm. It will remain in operation through early 2008
Structurally, a pawnshop is a short-term loan business, which retains a collateral object in exchange for cash — a small fraction of the object’s value that must be repaid with interest for the item is to be re-claimed by its original owner. If, after 30 days, the item has not been claimed, the pawnbroker earns the right to sell it, and the pawned object remains on display until it is picked up or purchased by
someone else.
PAWNSHOP’s initial inventory is comprised of over 60 pawned works from a group of artists invited to participate in the project. After PAWNSHOP opens for business on October 1st, artists may walk in with a work they want to pawn — we will happily look at all submissions and, if we find any of interest, we may add them to our inventory. After the initial 30 days, on November 1st, the artworks that have not been retrieved by their original owners may become available for sale.
Although these days pawnshops are often found in distressed urban neighborhoods, or near gambling sites where fast cash comes at a premium, this was not the case historically. From early Chinese society to the Medici era in Europe, pawnshops served as primary lenders to their communities and provided financial bases for some of the more important historical events of their times, including the discovery of the Americas; Columbus’ voyage was funded by Queen Isabella of Spain pawning her jewels. We are very curious what discoveries our pawnshop will bring about…
For several years now e-flux has been experimenting with models unusual for art, exploring the poetics of circulation and distribution. We love pawnshops for their mix of acute inventiveness, futurity and anticipation… and the idea that the object (a gun, a ring, a work of art in our case) is collateral for cash, a substitution, which might be traded back for the object during a set duration of time. A pawnshop is a stage where merchandise and money dance in a choreography that could have them circle back and cancel each other out, but in fact rarely does. What better place to question how the value of the artwork and the worth of money might be set, and reset
PAWNSHOP is a project by Julieta Aranda, Liz Linden and Anton Vidokle.
Participating artists: Lucas Ajemian, Carlos Amorales / Nuevos Ricos, James Angus, Julieta Aranda, Julie Ault, Fia Backström, Steven Baldi, Julien J. Bismuth, Bengala, Mike Bouchet, Ethan Breckenridge, Willie Brisco, AA Bronson, François Bucher, Paul Chan, Jan Christensen, Heman Chong, Peter Coffin, Keren Cytter, Marcelline Delbecq, Wilson Diaz, Nico Dockx, Christoph Draeger, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Jakup Ferri, Jean-Pascal Flavien, Claire Fontaine, Rene Gabri, Nikolas Gambaroff, Mario Garcia Torres, Andrea Geyer, Simryn Gill, Liam Gillick, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Diango Hernández, Ralf Hoffman, Karl Holmqvist, Christian Jankowski, Michael Joo, Sejla Kameric, Matt Keegan, Christoph Keller, Gabriel Kuri, Adriana Lara, Annika Larsson, Gabriel Lester, Liz Linden, Esther Lu, Rodrigo Mallea Lira, John Miller, Aleksandra Mir, Naeem Mohaiemen, Lucas Moran, Carlos Motta, neuroTransmitter (Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere), Olaf Nicolai, Ernesto Neto, Ylva Ogland, Yoshua Okon, Joe Pflieger, Lisi Raskin, Pedro Reyes, Carissa Rodriguez, Martha Rosler, Anri Sala, Eduardo Sarabia, Aaron Simonton, Matt Sheridan Smith, Mike Smith, Nedko Solakov, Kimsooja, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Danna Vajda, Costa Vece, Anton Vidokle, Lawrence Weiner, Florian Wüst, Andrea Zittel, and many more.
For further information please write to pawnshop@e-flux.com or call 212 619 3356.
Opening reception at PAWNSHOP, 6 to 8 pm, Monday, October 1st.
e-flux
53 Ludlow Street
New York, NY 10002
212 619 3356
pawnshop@e-flux.com
