Produced on the occasion of Cosima von Bomin’s exhibition Fondorientierte Ausstattung (Fund-oriented Equipment) at Neue Galerie, Graz, 27 October –1 December, 2002.

“The fact that Poul Gernes once built a ship in order simply to burn it on the open sea, and that Bas Jan Ader set off alone in a small sailing boat in 1975 in order to cross the Atlantic in 60 days, a project that ended in his vanishing without trace, allows Cosima von Bonin’s “skerry cruiser”, stranded in all pomp and elegance here in Graz, to appear not only as a metaphor for unfettered proliferation and boundless world domination but, above all, as a symbol of failure, of misadventure, perhaps even of hubris.”—Neue Galerie, Graz, press release. More information on the exhibition can be found here.

Designed by Yvonne Quirmbach.

Guy Mees’s (1935–2003) photographs, videos, and above all his fragile works on paper are characterised by a formal rigour combined with sensitivity and delicacy. The uniqueness of his oeuvre lies precisely in its avoidance of conventional aesthetics and discursive classifications. A leading figure of the Belgian avant-garde, Mees left behind an outstanding body of work that transgresses geometric abstraction, Minimalism, Conceptualism, and applied art.

Produced as a contribution to the exhibition Commitment, een keuze uit drie jaar Fonds BKVB, Las Palmas, Rotterdam, 2002. The text which is derived from a fortune cookie, has taken various forms and media in Bik Van der Pol’s work since 2000.

Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft began its life in December 2002, as both a corporation and a work of art. Upon an invitation to participate in Documenta 11, Maria Eichhorn founded an Aktiengesellschaft, or public limited company. As is typical of such entities, the newly created firm was in her own name. It held a 50,000 euros portion of Documenta’s exhibition budget—divided into 50,000 shares of a euro apiece—meeting the minimum requirement of subscribed capital for an Aktiengesellschaft.

Maria Eichhorn Aktiengesellschaft mimetically uses the structure of the corporation against itself. The artist remains its sole managing board member and initial shareholder; she transferred all shares of the company to itself, to be held in perpetuity. The corporation belongs to itself, or, in Eichhorn’s words, “it ultimately belongs to no one,” and “the concept of property disappears in this case.”

More information can be found on the work here.

Produced on the occasion of Armin Krämer & Kai Althoff’s exhibition at Kunstverein Braunschweig, 21 September–10 November, 2002. With texts by Kai Althoff and Armin Krämer, Miriam Tölke. Edited by Karola Grässlin.

A set of 8 postcards in a plastic slipcase, produced by Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley in 2002.