Performative Construction of a Future Monument for the Dialectic Negation of a Post-Catastrophic Society
Pil and Galia Kollectiv

2nd Herzliya Biennial for Contemporary Art Herzliya 2009
3-10 October 2009

It has often been remarked that the late capitalist operations of financialisation have no concrete visual language. Global finance is a liquid, smooth motion that paradoxically de-territorialises and concentrates wealth like a swarm of fractional arithmetic components, both menacing and immaterial. But if its true nature is an elusive, constantly mutating entity, then yachts serve as a fictionalization of its core essence, a testament to the conditions under which we live. As repositories of capital, they are fascinating because they make concrete the invisible flows of finance. Their display of power and status is inverted in their sheer visibility. Ignoring what goes on inside, we are treated to a spectacle of architecture in motion, evoking the impermanence to which the postmodern monument aspires.

For the second Herzliya Biennale, Pil and Galia Kollectiv present a new temporary public sculpture, performance and prints constituting a proposal for a monument to the future crimes of capitalism inspired by the form of the yacht. Scripted to a capitalist manifesto, the choreographed construction of the monument strives to articulate the ideology latent in capitalism’s claims to a neutral manifestation of human nature. Featuring live music by Mingo L’Indien (Quattro, Les Georges Leningrad), the performance takes place on October 3rd 18:00 - 22:00 in front of the unfinished Herzliya town hall building. It is accompanied by an exhibition of prints and costumes at the Herzliya Ensemble Theatre from 3–10 October 2009 and a screening of Another Proof of the Preceding Theory at the Herzliya Ensemble Theatre.

The Herzliya Biennale is curated and designed by Adi Englman, Meir Kordevani, Toony Navok, the publishers and the co-editors of Picnic Magazine http://www.picnicmagazine.net. For more information visit http://www.herzliya-biennial.com/.

View more images here.

Read the Capitalist Manifesto here.