Global Membership

Global Membership addresses other aspects of transition in the form of travel and the physical overcoming of borders. The work comprises a mix of different suitcase genres that have temporarily entered the exhibition space. Crammed behind high-gloss acrylic glass façades, they oscillate as a highly indifferent appearance between exhibition showcase and artifacts worthy of preservation for a world to come. The fully tagged pieces of luggage show themselves to be decidedly communicative, but their fragmented slogans pose a riddle.

Originally commissioned for the London headquarters of Soho House, known for its rigorous membership policy, Global Membership describes the artist’s initiation into the members only club, who in exchange for his participation received the golden ticket in the form of a two-year Global Membership status. In the context of the exhibition, the work thus refers through pandemic-related perception filters to the concrete effects on globetrotters who normally are permanently on the move along with the worldwide networks that flourish through them. The suitcases, which due to their function as mobile containers for belongings are completely dependent on their carriers, mutate into representatives of a crisis, who have long since given up hope that their owners will put them back into operation; their fate seems to be sealed by conservation.