Objectonomy: The Economy of the Object

Curator: Sally Haftel Naveh
Opening: 3. 9., 7pm
Artists: Sharon Balaban (IL), Jakub Geltner (CZ), Zac Hacmon (IL), Roy Menachem Markovich (IL), Jan Nálevka (CZ), Hila Toony Navok (IL), Rona Stern (IL), Adam Vačkář (CZ), Aleksandra Vajd & Hynek Alt (CZ), Roni Weiss (IL)    

The exhibition OBJECTONOMY at MeetFactory aims to explore the economy of  the commercial  object  in  contemporary  art  through  works  by  10  artists  from  Israel  and  the Czech  Republic,  all  of  whom  deal  primarily  with  this  thematic.  The works assembled, in different media, incorporate objects of mass‐produced origin – both mundane and functional – which have become a central and vital component of today's Western consumerist society. 

An abundance of widely available everyday consumer goods, drawn mostly from the realm of the domestic, dominates the subject matter of the works on view – from kitchen towels, bathroom accessories and plastic detergent containers to processed food, toys, cosmetics, electronic gear and more – uncovering society’s complex relationship with consumerism in‐between fascination and distaste. Reflecting the growing ambivalence with which we have come to consider the excess that surrounds us, they engage critically and sarcastically with a growing obsession that is  at the root of our  love‐hate relationship with them  –  a tangled relationship where the balance between subject (the consumer) and object (the commodity) has been broken, doing away with this perceived hierarchy to a point where it is no longer clear who is in charge of whom.  

The works presented are all about artistic subjectivity, questioning in addition the  artist’s role as a social‐cultural agent in his readiness to point out and underline the problematic of contemporary daily life in a hyper-consumerist world.

Exhibition texts: Curatorial text

Press photos here.