In his video work Liquidity (2020), visual artist Timo Bredenberg examines the meta-structures and language of economics. The exhibition centres around figures of speech and sayings related to the concept of fluidity, which is used to naturalise economic phenomena.

In an economy, money is often equated with liquid, which follows the laws of physics. Cash flows from top to bottom (trickle-down effect), or it is pumped from the central banks to risky banks. By money laundering, criminally acquired money becomes publicly serviceable. Liquidity, in turn, supports solvency, that is how easily something is converted into currency and long-term wealth.

Bredenberg’s video work in Hippolyte Studio is like a fragmented documentary, whose narrative remains foreign to its viewers. Some of the scenes of the film were recorded in Riga and London in 2019—the locations are ABLV, a Latvian bank responsible for money laundering, and the City of London and its financial district, Paternoster Square. Behind these facades lie both the tangles of corruption, brought about by global cash flows and the geopolitical exercise of power.

Bredenberg has used photogrammetry to produce three-dimensional reproductions of his photographic series. In photogrammetry, models are computer-generated via the input of digital photographs or videos. The surface texture is a collage of all the pictures used within the model. However, the series of images are intentionally narrow, which prevents the computer from creating complete models—their irregularity depicts a world in which previously irreproachable structures reveal their fragility. The visuality of the video work refers to both the video game Pipe Mania (1989) and J.G. Ballard’s science fiction novel The Drowned World (1962). In Bredenberg’s work, Pipe Mania’s innocent game mechanics transform into metaphors for phenomena hidden within complex systems such as tax evasion and money laundering. Liquid metaphors are used to naturalise economic structures and politics.

The work is a sequel to Bredenberg’s 2018 video Without Friction which examines the construction of the e-economy and its physical environments in New York City, USA.

Visual artist Timo Bredenberg resides and works in Tampere. He works with moving images, software, and installation art. In recent years, Bredenberg has focused on examining the material and ideological sustainability of the network society. By combining archival sources with imagery of speculative fiction, Bredenberg seeks to question different future scenarios as well as to allow imagining the present differently. Bredenberg graduated with a master’s degree in art from Aalto University in 2012, and his works have been exhibited in several exhibitions and screening events in Finland and abroad.

The exhibition is kindly supported by The VISEK Centre for the Promotion of Visual Art.

Timo Bredenberg
Liquidity
Hippolyte Studio
7.8.–30.8.2020
Open: Tue-Fri 12-17, Sat-Sun 12-16

image: Timo Bredenberg, still-image from Liquidity, 2020
exhibition images: Milla Talassalo