DOKUARTS
Zeughauskino Berlin
Oct 4-21, 2018

The Price of Everything

Once contemporary works of art are auctioned for seven-digit sums, they are in danger to degenerate into nothing but trophies for the super-rich. In view of such excess, any discourse about the true value of art must fade into the background.

In his intelligent and richly detailed documentary The Price of Everything, Nathaniel Kahn retraces the development from contemporary artwork to hyped investment object. The film benefits from Kahn’s unsuspicious insider position within the ultimately hermetic art world. As son of Louis Kahn - the legendary architect, whom he portrayed in his Oscar-nominated director’s debut My Architect - he has free access to top-class collectors, dealers, curators, auction houses and art historians. The proximity and mutual trust between filmmaker and protagonists provide us with an almost private insight. The politics, the gold rush, and the hunting fever, as well as the arbitrariness of valuations subtly unmask themselves without any need of poster-like exposure.

By including a young shooting star, Nigeria-born artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby, as well as the rebellious “old master” Larry Poon, Kahn’s film identifies two concise positions of two different artist, who, each in their own way, have to face the realities of the art market.

(sh)