++++ Just imagine that problems were a currency and whoever had the most of it were rich. A simple metal game which seems to be particularly promising if you believe in the aphorism by G.K. Chesterton, "A problem is an opportunity which has been misconceived". This is also how Davide Grassi and his companion, Igor Stromajer, see things who have established the internet portal www.problemarket.com. They regard themselves as experts on the problem market and provide a forum for trading in problems of all kinds.
With stock exchange quotations, charts and a consciously applied aesthetics of news broadcasters such as CNN, Davide Grassi, as a participant in the video program at Manifesta 4, proceeds to present his idea. "We believe that problems are what makes life interesting," says the President of the Management Board of Problemarket. "When somebody is confronted with a problem, they have to bundle their energies in order to come to terms with the issue and possibly solve it."
For Grassi, problems are nothing other than a catalyst for energy and therefore have a higher value. Value, in turn, calls for trade, and for this Grassi provides a platform. Those who speculate on a collective soul strip or expect debates about misguided diets or jealousy will be disappointed. Only the rough orientation of the participating companies is indicated. Alcohol and other narcotics are collected together, love and sex too, whereas the special area of “the wife” is to be found in the sector "family problems".
Problemarket is not a virtual cry-baby talk show, but a forum for active, young, dynamic people like Grassi who always has himself photographed with his partner in suit and tie. The video presentation of his problem business idea, however, brings all sorts of people together, such as Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush, or even Ariel Sharon, instigator and solver of problems, collectively stored model images for war, power and, of course, problems. The fact that all this cannot really be communicated visually has also to do with the fact that the artistic implementation of the idea is not really graspable on a formal level. Problemarket recalls the time when the NASDAQ suddenly became more important as an element of the night-time news slot than the weather forecast. Grassi does not provide any graphic examples, but creates only a diffuse, presumably functioning interface, whose functionality unfortunately cannot be tested, and which consists of a special code composed of forms, colours and meanings. In this he has consistently adapted himself minutely to the real presentations of economic news. hoh
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