LUCHEZAR BOYADJIEV
(Bulgaria, 1957)


GastARTbeiter, 2000-2007
ink-jet print on paper, 250 x 500 cm
Courtesy Galerie Feinkost, Berlin







What is an artist worth? A threefold panel shows a mapping of ten years of work by the Bulgarian artist documenting the value attributed to him in the course of his institutional projects. Fragments of his correspondence, calculations and photographs form a cluster visualizing the process of exhibition making between the artist and various art institutions in its monetary aspects. Luchezar Boyadjiev investigates the process of creation and transfer of cultural and economic capital. The title GastARTbeiter is playing on the German word “Gastarbeiter” which means migrant worker. By inserting the letter T, thereby incapsulating the word ART, the artist is creating a cross reference between the status of a migrant worker selling his work-power to a foreign economy and the position of an artist investing time and effort in creating cultural value within the art system without receiving an adequate monetary reward for it. His documentation highlights the view that the basis of the cultural value being capitalized on by the art institutions is the self exploitation of the artist.







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