27.11.2024, Wednesday 14:00 – 18:00 Uhr
What’s art worth (to us)?

Venue:
Hörssal, HFBK Hamburg, Lerchenfeld 2, 22081 Hamburg

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In a capitalist society, money often is the means of indicating how much or little value we attribute to certain things. Objects that we believe to be of high social or abstract significance are literally dear to us; by the same token, we expect that the expensive must also be worth it. When talking about the appreciation of art, however, things get a bit more complicated: there is a wide gap between the absurdly, astronomically high prices paid for individual artworks when employed as financial tools and the honorariums paid to artists that amount (next) to nothing as, for instance, compensation for contributing in institutional exhibitions – the artists’ engagement is often simply taken for granted. Many praise art for its social and emancipatory value, yet we witness cultural budgets shrinking.

So, what’s art worth (to us)? Especially in times that will, at a political level, be challenging, to say the least? What is the social value of art, if there is one at all? And how does its economic value arise and develop? How are prices being made? Can they, should they be regulated? Are there alternative ways to show our appreciation of art, of artists? Is there a correlation between financial appreciation on the one hand, and intellectual, emotional on the other? These are some of the issues our symposium wants to address. To this end, we have invited four experts that will discuss these very different questions that are nonetheless deeply entwined.

The presentations will be held in either English or German.

Speakers:

Alexander Koch, gallerist, director of Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber gGmbH (Society of the New Patrons)
Sung Tieu, artist, guest professor at HFBK, co-founder of the platform CASE
Stefanie Busold, Sotheby's Hamburg
Olav Velthuis, Department of Sociology of the University of Amsterdam

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The cinema in the new film house, Finkenau 42; photo: Tim Albrecht

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"The New Woman - How Female Artists and Designers shaped the Image of Modernism", graphic by Liudmila Savelyeva, Karla Krey, Amira Mostafa (Klasse Digitale Grafik)

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Detail: Installation by Mark Morris; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Julia Scher, Territorium, 2024, installationview at ICAT of HFBK Hamburg; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Sharon Poliakine, Untitled, 2023, oil on canvas, detail

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photo: Ronja Lotz

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Visitors of the annual exhibition 2024; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

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Examination of the submitted portfolios

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photo: Tim Albrecht

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photo: Lukes Engelhardt

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photo: Miriam Schmidt / HFBK

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A disguised man with sunglasses holds a star-shaped sign for the camera. It says "Suckle". The picture is taken in black and white.

photo: Honey-Suckle Company

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ASA Open Studios winter semester 2021/22; photo: Marie-Theres Böhmker

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Amna Elhassan, Tea Lady, oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

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Renée Green. ED/HF, 2017. Film still. Courtesy of the artist, Free Agent Media, Bortolami Gallery, New York, and Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin/Cologne/Munich.

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Amanda F. Koch-Nielsen, Motherslugger; photo: Lukas Engelhardt

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New studio in the row of houses at Lerchenfeld, in the background the building of Fritz Schumacher; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Martha Szymkowiak / Emilia Bongilaj, Installation “Mmh”; photo: Tim Albrecht

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23 Fragen des Institutional Questionaire, grafisch umgesetzt von Ran Altamirano auf den Türgläsern der HFBK Hamburg zur Jahresausstellung 2021; photo: Charlotte Spiegelfeld

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photo: Klaus Frahm

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ASA Open Studio 2019, Karolinenstraße 2a, Haus 5; photo: Matthew Muir

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Studiengruppe Prof. Dr. Anja Steidinger, Was animiert uns?, 2021, Mediathek der HFBK Hamburg, Filmstill

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Ausstellungsansicht "Schule der Folgenlosigkeit. Übungen für ein anderes Leben" im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg; photo: Maximilian Schwarzmann

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Katja Pilipenko

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Alltagsrealität oder Klischee?; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Ausstellung Social Design, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Teilansicht; photo: MKG Hamburg

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