Wertverschiebung [shift of value]

Wolfgang Becksteiner, 2010

The ambivalent combination of uncertainty and the promise of salvation, reflecting the basic human longing for security, is the subject of this sculpture. If religion points to the hereafter and the economy to gold as an eternally durable and secure material of stabilisation, it is art that defines questions instead of answers. Becksteiner transforms the sculpture’s original-sized gold ingots by casting them in the finest concrete and labelling them with the work’s title, serial number and edition number. The work, in the form of 999 bars, is stacked on a pallet and protected from access by grating.

The sculpture denies access to 999 ingots made of the finest concrete. The neatly stacked ingots are surrounded by a grid. The sculpture denies access to 999 ingots made of the finest concrete. The neatly stacked ingots are surrounded by a grid.

Image Credits

Author

Elisabeth Fiedler, Kurztexte adaptiert von Lisa Schantl und Lukas Sperlich 

Location on map

Position 65

Owner

Universalmuseum Joanneum 

Artist biography

Wolfgang Becksteiner

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About the sculpture

The ambiguous combination of uncertainty and the promise for salvation is formed by a basic human desire for security. If religion points to the afterlife and the economy guarantees gold as eternally lasting and securing material, so it is art that defines questions instead of answers: the bars are not equivalent to the real size of a standardized gold bar.

Becksteiner exchanges their material into finest concrete, pours the bars and furnishes them with a work title, a serial and an edition number. The strategy of constituting a limited edition enables the artist to overcome the crisis and perfectly translate and subtilize high profile share values through art. Characteristically, the art work, a gift by the artists Günter and Anni Brus, is formed of 999 bars, stapled as goods on a pallet. Thus art invests in art which finally is freely accessible for the public.