Estate

ESTATE by Aleksander Komarov is an artist book based on the film ESTATE from 2008. The idea of the book was conceived following a discussion between Lena Prents and Aleksander Komarov in the run-up to the exhibition FALL OUT -- ART, DESIRE and DISENGAGEMENT at GlHoltegaard, Denmark and at Malmö Konsthall, Sweden. The book ESTATE reflects on the means of evaluation of artistic production. To an extent, ESTATE is a response to the current condition of contemporary art and its relation to broader economic contexts. The project focuses the viewer's attention on basic resources and the movement between material and immaterial types of labour, gathering along the way diverse statements on the migration of value. In her essay, Lena Prents recalls the images and issues raised in AleksanderKomarov's film ESTATE, and questions the current position of artists, oscillating between the demands of the market, the conditions of work beyond the "cult of genius" and the immaterial value of artistic labour. Boris Buden draws on the wider context of the material presented in ESTATE, that of rationalisedlabour, then focus on projects by Aleksander Komarov which balance the issue of being an artist working under current economic conditions against the artistic "soul at work". The conversation between Aleksander Komarov and Jule Reuter deals with questions about the coherence between (migrated) identity, value production and the personal way in which one position oneself.