A Modest Proposal (in a Black Box)(film)

In their film, A Modest Proposal (in a Black Box), Vermeir & Heiremans, who are also the film's protagonists, discuss a new financial model with a lawyer. Their dialogue, witnessed by the lawyers assistant, focuses on the question if financialisation can be re-purposed towards generating a more equitable arts ecology.

Considering the financialisation of public art collections, museum real estate and symbolic capital, the financial model should benefit not only investors and art institutions, but also its stakeholders, the creators of the art assets' value, the artists and art workers.

In the film the artists propose to financialise a specific building as their first case study: Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park. The gallery is located in the vicinity of the Battersea Power Station, a 20th century former coal-fired power station, currently under re-development. It will house Apple’s London headquarters and offers luxury apartments for sale, designed by Frank Gehry and Foster and Partners. All in all an excellent momentum to leverage rising values that surround the gallery, to ‘pump’ up the building’s value as an asset, and generate a return on investment for the wider art community.

The conversation between the artists and the lawyer takes place in Vermeir & Heiremans’ house, which in their practice they define as an art work. Meanwhile the seemingly absent-minded assistant often slips away from the discussions. She appears to be able to materialise and dematerialise at will the lofty space by caressing the walls, playing with the miniature furniture inside a scale model of the artists’ house or using the latter as a framing device, manipulating the window views.

When the artists and the lawyer go on to discuss and celebrate the proposal on the loft’s rooftop garden, glass of champagne in hand, she takes control…

View the film on Vimeo:https://vimeo.com/290694804

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credits

English spoken/no subtitles/colour/sound/UK/Belgium/28'07"

cast

Vermeir & Heiremans as the artists

Luke Mason as the legal consultant

Heike Langsdorf as the assistant

Directors: Vermeir & Heiremans

Camera: Amir Borenstein

Editors: Katleen vermeir/Amir Borenstein

Sound: Justin Bennett

Organ Player: Cindy Castillo

Voice-over: Emily Rosamond

Script: vermeir & Heiremans/Luke Mason

Graphic design: Salome Schmuki

Animation: Amir Borenstein

Production: Jubilee vzw

With the support of:

The Flemish Community

Art et Recherche asbl

Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles

Pump House Gallery

Wandsworth Council

Enable Leisure and Culture

Art Council England

Cockayne-Grants for the Arts

The London Community Foundation