State of High Performance

Artists: Jakub Choma, Claire Fontaine, Kasia Fudakowski, Martin Kohout, Ariane Loze, Pilvi Takala

Curated by: Christin Müller
Date: September 2 - December 5, 2021
Venue: basis e.V., Gutleutstraße 8-12, 60329 Frankfurt, Germany
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and basis e.V.


To-do lists, time management, constant performance improvement, stress control...

The credo for a high level of productivity is omnipresent in our present society. But what does productivity actually mean and how does it come about? Why do we seem to dedicate ourselves to this compulsion to be constantly productive and to what extent does this pressure for efficiency also affect artistic production.The group exhibition State of High Performance highlights facets of this highly complex and seemingly ubiquitous topic of productivity and its structures. It features artistic works that investigate the concept of productivity in an ironic, resistant or critical way.

They not only shed light on production conditions and processes designed for high productivity, but also ask how efficiency can be determined at all. The extent to which intangable or artistic work is also subordinated to these patterns plays just as much a role as being constantly available in a productive world driven by competing forces. What effects this has on our mental constitution and social relationships and what reactions an alleged denial of productivity brings with it also come into focus.

By shifting the need for productivity to an individual artistic working method, deliberately exaggerating the principle and its consequences, or consistently reversing it, the works on display not only reflect the structures of that precept, but also encourage a critical examination of the urge for productivity and its consequences.

– Christin Müller

Kindly supported by Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, Dr. Marschner Stiftung, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Kulturamt Frankfurt