Industrial Witchcraft by BLESS (limited edition)

As a continuation of BLESS N°81 Soziusierung, BLESS has developed a new currency to inform about the Industrial Witchcraft show: den Informierenden Euro (the Informative Euro). It is attached as a limited to the fanzine that accompanies the exhibition. The Euro contains information about the opening as well as a traditional Wicca greeting.

The Industrial Witchcraft fanzine is a limited edition featuring the Informative Euro.

BLESS is part of the exhibition "Industrial Witchcraft" at the Die Möglichkeit einer Insel center in Berlin. The group show (curated by Oliver Koerner) includes Marc Brandenburg, Ursula Doebereiner, Thomas Rehnert, Elizad0uglas, Harun Farocki, Stephanie Klossowski, Julia Schmelzer, Cosey Fanni Tutti, S M van der Linden.

It brings together industrial, precarious, pornographic, magical, modern looks with reflections on production conditions and (artistic) work. Industrial witchcraft is a reaction to the omnipresent pseudo-activist, pseudo-poetic -speak in contemporary art, with which we are fobbed off in a thoroughly passive-aggressive manner – and the systemic, affirmative zombie art talk that sounds as if you were in a spaceship or a tennis court in a nuclear bunker. As an improvised, experimental exhibition and fanzine, Industrial Witchcraft wants to move away from this virtuousness, and take a more precarious, “cheap,” insecure, vulgar position.

For Industrial Witchcraft, BLESS contributed BLESS N°41 Sparschweinmöbel (Piggybankchair), 2010. BLESS transformed a standard chair with plexiglass and acrylic mirror attachments into a hybrid seating/money box/container for small change or donations. Money can be inserted through a slot in the plexiglass tubes attached to the chair legs, causing it to become heavier with each coin and develop gravitas. The original chair combines post-war design influences with craftsmanship, folklore, and a hint of Puritanism. One can imagine children sliding back and forth on the hard straw weave and being punished at the dining table. Alternatively, one could also interrogate fictional handmaids or witches on this chair.