I knOw yoU

I knOw yoU examines, amongst other things, the idea of cultural capital, what it means to be European, and ideas at the core of the financial heart of Europe. It further represents the exciting diversity of approach that is representative of contemporary art practice today. No part of I knOw yoU, curated by artist Tobias Rehberger, Nikolaus Hirsch, Director of Städelschule, and Rachael Thomas, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA, has been prescribed or proscribed; rather, it creates a discursive space that allows the curators to go beyond a process which is linear, but is rather a vibrating conversation.

Artist Tobias Rehberger has turned group and individual collaborations into an art form. He sees the world as a living exhibition that has been temporarily captured in a museum display. The artists in I knOw yoU were selected from graduates of the Städelschule academy in Frankfurt am Main, and reflect the ambitious undertaking made by the school in its development as a leading centre for experimental art practice. The invitation to this core group of artists to nominate another practitioner encompasses the school and the city as a prism through which international debate can be explored.

The genesis of I knOw yoU focuses on the central points of Europe and harnesses its context to address European notions and questions of power and that of economic dominance within the banking industry as a prominent debate in contemporary society. The exhibition seeks to further expand this debate by examining concepts of symbolic and cultural capital alongside the role of art and creative innovation, its particular questions on the production of meaning and value. The current discourse of capital in Europe is overwhelmingly dominated by the discourse of economic power and structure. The particular symbol for this, especially within the media, is the Euro and the European Central Bank, located in Frankfurt. The exhibition I knOw yoU aims at an alternative model of capital that explores a new set of relations between knowing and owing.

Twenty-seven artists were invited to participate in this innovative exhibition by including a work. Furthermore, these invited artists were asked whether they would like to nominate another practitioner, from any discipline of their choosing (i.e. a poet, philosopher, musician, scientist, chef, gardener, artist etc.) whose work or practice they connect with, for inclusion in the exhibition, either on a collaborative or stand-alone basis, thereby extending the connection point for their individual practice.

I knOw yoU

An exhibition by a new generation of young European artists
curators: Tobias Rehberger, Nikolaus Hirsch, Rachael Thomas