left gallery: rite of access

'Our House, your Home'.

With contributions by: William Habib Kherbek, Margarethe Kollmer, Ryan Kuo, Dorine van Meel, Viktor Timofeev, Adriana Ramic, Harm van den Dorpel, Laurel Schwulst, Micah Schippa, Aarati Akkapedi, Simon Denny and others.
rite of access is a project by left gallery on access to public art in the digital age. From 7 September - 20 October left gallery takes residence in a brick and mortar public art institution.
 
left gallery is an online platform that produces and sells works of art as downloadable objects. These objects exist in limited editions, available for purchase. Once purchased, buyers receive a cryptographic ‘token' as proof of ownership. In rite of access, this token mechanism creates the conditions to access the works on display: engagement of visitors, such as purchases and social media activity operate as a stream of credit, which allow the works to remain on view. Follow the left gallery page on twitter and the time to see the complete works increases; unlike left gallery, and access may be denied. A purchase made through left gallery anywhere in the world extends the display of the works at Stroom. So long as sufficient credit remains, visitors can access all works within the project.

left gallery investigates access to public art by transforming notions of ownership. By guaranteeing the artificial scarcity of objects in their portfolio, left gallery seeks to uncover the invisible degrees of access that are encoded in consuming art in a public institution. Through the proposal of a model that democratizes ownership of works of art, the Stroom gallery space operates as a ‘serving suggestion', showing how the works could be installed in a domestic setting once purchased.
 
 

07 Sep '19 - 20 Oct '19
Stroom Den Haag, Hogewal 1-9, The Hague
Entrance: free