Continuity #42

Arteconomy - ART WITHOUT THE ARTIST Arteconomy is an artistic movement that combines art and economy, making economy and finance essential and fully integrated into the artwork itself, making the role of the artist superfluous. The idea comes from Five Gallery in Lugano and it was presented for the first time on November 25, 2016, as a provocative response to the excessive emphasis on finance and economy in the contemporary art world. Arteconomy finds its first expression in the work "Continuity". Continuity is a set of progressively numbered works composed of a piece of carbon fibre recycled using an innovative industrial process. The result is placed within a frame, creating a first interrelation between real economy and art. Pricing becomes an integral part of the work itself: starting with an assigned price of 500 Sfr to “Continuity 1” , the price steadily increases by 100 Sfr with every piece sold. The value of “Continuity 2” is 600 Sfr, “Continuity 3” 700 Sfr and so on. This constant mark-up is not due to the increasing demand, it is the emotion that every single collector feels when buying. This mark-up, defined as incremental emotion, points to a subsequent, stronger, emotion and its face value is entirely donated to charity, highlighting the social dimension of art in contrast to its current elitist value. Arteconomy collectors form a community that can be viewed as a corporate. Like every corporate that grows earnings and pay dividends, Arteconomy distributes a dividend too: an emotional condividendo (Italian wordplay mixing up “to share” (condividere) and “dividend” (dividendo)). Arteconomy distributes 10% of the net price paid for each new Continuity to all the previous buyers: an absolutely innovative formula which allows all “Continuity” series collectors to benefit directly from Arteconomy growth and success.