Jan Peter Hammer
The Anarchist Banker
5 February – 6 March, 2010
Supportico Lopez
Graefestrasse 9
10967 Berlin Kreuzberg
T +49 (0)30 31989387
info [at] supporticolopez.com
http://www.supporticolopez.com
Opening the 5th of February 2010 h 19.00. The show will be on until the 6th of March 2010
Supportico Lopez is open from Tuesday to Saturday h: 14.00 – 19.00
Supportico Lopez is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of the German artist Jan Peter Hammer.
The Anarchist Banker by Jan Peter Hammer is a 30 min. long video installation shot on HD Video, featuring the actors John Quincy Long and Thomas Spencer, emulating the style of a talk show, where the host interviews a banker in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Named after the short story wrote in 1922 by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, Jan Hammer’s video restages Pessoa’s dialogue between the banker and his secretary as an interview between a banker, Arthur Ashenking, and Dave Hall, a TV moderator. The name Arthur Ashenking is a loose translation of the Portuguese Artur Alves dos Reis, the shaddy financier said to have inspired Pessoa’s original character. Alves dos Reis almost single handedly bankrupt the Portuguese state, by mounting a huge fraud which shook the credibility of the Portuguese currency, the Escudo. The subsequent scandal undermined the public trust in the First Republic to the point of enabling the military coup d’état of the 28th of May 1926, whose ensuing dictatorship ruled the country for most of the 20th century.
The dialogue’s original content has however been adapted to reflect upon the financial practices of neo-liberalism and the resulting credit crunch. Through the words of Arthur Ashenking we are, thus, led through the genealogy described in between the writings of Max Stirner and the economic policies of Milton Friedman. The banker’s inexorable logic, through which he exposes the core of his economical philosophy and debunks his opponent is, however, faithful to the original, and proves itself uncannily contemporary in its defense of ‘rational egoism’ and unabashed individualism.
Jan Peter Hammer is an artist currently living and working in Berlin. His work has been exhibited regularly both in Germany and abroad. Recent solo shows: Elizabeth Dee, New York; Gallery Meerrettich; COMA, Berlin.
