Polly Staple will give an illustrated introduction to the research project "Switzerland: Art, Commerce and the Desiring Subject" which explores the relationship of art and commerce as read through the desiring subject, from free market economics to cannibalism. The project explores how one experiencees the artwork and establishes a subject position as mediated through the exhibition and beyond, from production to dispersal, from private to public experience while accounting for the cultural value systems and the socio-economic framework of circulation and exchange informing these encounters. "Switzerland" touches on the gold standard, property relations, relational aesthetics, myth making, enigmatic signifiers, erotic barriers and the poignancy of things. The talk will also include discussion of some previous curatorial projects and will cite works by Marcel Broodthaers, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons alongside those by David Robbins, Cathy Wilkes, Aleksandra Mir, Jeremy Deller and Roman Ondak.
