Frieze London I Julian Irlinger I 13. – 17. October 2021

Damien & The Love Guru

Julian Irlinger, Expiration: 9/11/1921, 2021, pigment print, 67 x 75 cm / [removed] x [removed] in
 

Frieze London
solo presentation by Julian Irlinger 

Focus section booth H20

Wednesday Preview, 13. October (invitation only): 11am – 7pm
Thursday Preview, 14. October: 11am – 7pm
Friday [removed]: 11am – 7pm
Saturday [removed] 11am – 7pm
Sunday [removed] 11am – 6pm

Julian Irlinger engages with the writing of history as it relates to images and artistic production. His presentation at this Frieze Art Fair addresses the formation of national and cultural identity and combines research with the presentation of materials that have a politically illuminating value.

Excerpt from On Notgeld: Towards A Theory of Emergency Currency by Nora M. Alter, a text commissioned by Julian Irlinger:
 

„Emergency currencies have appeared all over the world, predictably coming on the market during periods of crisis: [removed], civil wars (American and Spanish); revolutions (French and the failed revolutions of 1848); the two world wars (virtually all involved countries); many stages of colonialism and inter-imperialist rivalry; and postwar periods of inflation, currency reform, or other economic crisis. The historical termini ad quo and ad quem of Notgeld can be viewed as both very old and very new. On the one hand, as Brian Rotman notes, the Italian Renaissance (an incept date of capitalism) already saw the emergence of “imaginary money”: [removed], currency without referent to, or legitimation by, valuable metals. On the other hand there are signs in France today that the concept and even forms of Notgeld are back on the [removed];Notgeld’s link to war and other historical crises has been especially striking since metal is used for the production of heavy industry and weapons, creating a scarcity of raw material for minting coins. The general social instability produced by war or revolution commonly leads to a hoarding of coins, appearing as they do to be of more “substance” and “inherent value” than paper money. During times of inflation, emergency money is issued when official paper money becomes discredited (literally and figuratively), rendered worthless or unreliable. Emergency currency then acts as an alternative or ersatz currency, functioning more or less briefly until “normalcy” returns—a normalcy, however, the very existence of which emergency currency has exposed as artifice. In the German literary canon, this problematic finds its most complex depiction in the “Paper Money Scene” in Goethe’s Faust II, which is often alluded to on Notgeld. The suspicion and distrust directed against all paper money has a long-standing history, particularly during periods of political and economic instability. Because the hyper-ephemeral nature of emergency currency both responds to and embodies more general instability, its interest (Latin inter-esse) may be said to lie always between other forms of more or less visible and tangible cultural, political, and economic crisis—potentially disruptive to each form, at least conceptually.“

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