Black Friday — Exercises in Multiplication

Western Front Exhibitions and READ books are pleased to present an Artist/Publisher talk by Christoph Keller, Founder and Director of Revolver – Archiv fur akruelle Kunst, a non-profit publishing house based in Frankfurt, Germany specializing in artists’ books, exhibition catalogues, audio projects and artists’ writings. Publications produced by Revolver include The Next Documenta Should Be Curated By An Artist in collaboration with Jens Hoffmann, Do It in collaboration with Hans Ulrich Obrist, monographs on Fiona Banner, Mark Lewis, Jonathan Monk and audio projects with Douglas Gordan and Olafur Eliasson.

Black Friday refers to both a short-lived financial crisis in the United States that occurred on Friday, September 24, 1869 as well as to the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday. This financial crisis in the latter half of the 19ch century was a stockmarket panic precipitated by two market speculators manipulating the price of gold to make huge profits but ruining countless businesses in the process. The Black Friday after the US Thanksgiving is a day promoted heavily by retailers in the U.S., and is when many consumers begin Christmas shopping. The term refers to the day when retailers go from being unprofitable (in the red) to being profitable, (in the black).

Bracketed by these two references, Black Friday is an exhibition curated by Christoph Keller held at Galerie Kamm, Berlin from July 10 to September 11, 2004 that featured artists such as Liam Gillick, Cerith Wyn Evans, Olaf Nicolai, Helen Mirra and Carol Bove.