Simon Denny
New Management
July 12–September 7, 2014
Portikus
Alte Brücke 2 / Maininsel
60594 Frankfurt am Main
Simon Denny’s new body of work for Portikus ranks among the most ambitious the artist has developed to date. Over the period of one year, the artist researched and developed an intricate project that has grown to considerable dimensions—both physically and in terms of its critical content. For two months, the monumental gallery space is turned into an homage to technology, communication, and the relentless need for innovation. Simon Denny has produced an embracing and multi-faceted installation that functions as a documentary of the South Korean technology giant Samsung and its global success story. The exhibition’s title, New Management, refers to the legendary management philosophy that Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of the Samsung Group, infamously introduced in the early nineties. “The New Management” principle was first proclaimed in 1993 at a high-level executive meeting at the Kempinski Hotel Frankfurt Gravenbruch near Frankfurt am Main International Airport. Lee flew in his entire top management from around the world for a three-day conference, emphasizing the need to globalize and preparing his employees for a new philosophy of change he was going to introduce in order to turn Samsung into a global market leader in all its sectors. This seminal meeting became known within the company as the “Frankfurt Declaration.”
While the market success of Samsung that Simon Denny retells is well-known, recontextualizing it in this way highlights its currency and raises questions about globalization, economic dominance, nationalistic aspiration, and expansion. “Change everything but your spouse and kids” and “Change begins with me,” slogans coined by Lee Kun-hee that can be found on Denny’s sculptural elements, have become directly associated with the idea of success in South Korean corporate culture.
In the introduction to the publication, Simon Denny writes: “In Portikus one sees a fantastic conglomeration of material that tries to monumentalize this powerful cultural message; arranging imagined and remade objects around excerpts from Lee Kun-hee’s texts and Samsung’s history. I’ve tried to stay close to the context it describes: the global material language of corporate pride and presentation.” In commissioning different English translations of New Management Principle, a publication in Korean about the philosophy and history of Chairman Lee’s legacy, Denny investigates existing hierarchies. On the one hand, the material carries with it extremely specific cultural and economic meaning and value, and on the other, it forms a part of global culture and public information. The same goes for Samsung’s comic version of New Management and the inclusion of Sam Grobart’s article on Samsung that originally ran in Bloomberg Businessweek. Denny levels the role of the artist with those of the professional from a tech company, a journalist, an independent contractor from freelancer.com, and finally the viewer of the work.
Simon Denny is creating a unique artist edition for Portikus. The publication Simon Denny. New Management, published by Mousse Publishing, is available online at Portikus. For more information, please contact info [at] portikus.de.
Director: Philippe Pirotte
Curator: Sophie von Olfers
Portikus
Alte Brücke 2 / Maininsel
60594 Frankfurt am Main
T +49 69 96244540
info [at] portikus.de
www.portikus.de
As part of its cultural initiative “eXperimente,” the Aventis Foundation supports Portikus as an experimental space for contemporary art and a distinctive exhibition venue that plays an important role in nurturing young artistic talents. Its affiliation with the Academy of Fine Arts Städelschule facilitates close and fruitful exchanges of ideas between the invited artists and the students at the academy. The Aventis Foundation is an independent non-profit foundation based in Frankfurt am Main. It was established to promote the arts as well as scholarship, research, and higher education. Founded in 1996 as the Hoechst Foundation, it has an endowment of 50 million EUR. It was renamed Aventis Foundation in 2000.
For his exhibition at Portikus in Frankfurt, Simon Denny was awarded the “Catalogues for Young Artists” exhibition and catalogue grant by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung. Founded in 1968, the Krupp Foundation promotes numerous projects in the fields of art, education, science, sports, and healthcare. The “Catalogues for Young Artists” grant was created in 1982. Over the past three decades, the grant programme has made possible the production of around 130 artist catalogues.
