A Table Sorted by Price

Curated by Vygandas ‘Vegas’ Šimbelis

The project and publication, ‘A Table Sorted by Price’ re-examined the notion of migration from the perspective of acquisition, looking at how artworks are arranged and sorted and different exhibition formats.  The project examined issue of migration not as relocation or chronology, but in terms of their value and in relation to acquisition practices. The project offered a new way to look at the public collection of the Malmö Art Museum (and the selection from its collection presented at the Tensta konsthall) through the lens of value and, in this case, the artwork's exposure to its own monetary value. In this way, aspects of ownership were considered in re-evaluating the artwork and art market mechanisms in the public domain. The project operated and examined which information in the public museum is open and public, but not exposed and hidden, and what information is sensitive with regard to the relationships between the museum and audience, institution and artist.

The project examined how the ways in which artworks are instrumentally sorted for an exhibition is a way to hide the mechanics of the art market as well as simultaneously to exclude the narrative. The project explored the relationship between how art is valued particularly in relation to the monetisation of art today.  More specifically, a list of artworks that the museum purchased was produced, sorted by the artworks' price, but without the price actually displayed.  Donated items were excluded from the list as they are of any monetary value.