KASSEL.- With the exhibition Nuevos Ricos, the entire produce range and scope of the art project and record label by the Mexican artist Carlos Amorales is presented for the first time. The Kunsthalle Fridericianum not only provides an overview of the history and social positioning of the project, but above all reflects the broad artistic spectrum: From December 2009 to February 2010 performances, band acts and lectures supplementing the exhibition will enable the philosophy and social policy of Nuevos Ricos to be experienced live.

Carlos Amorales (born in Mexico City in 1970) is one of the most important Mexican artists. His artistic media range from paintings, drawings and installations to video animations and performances. Together with the musician Julian Léde, he called the label Nuevos Ricos into being in 2003, a record label that has since been linked to the fine arts, performance and design. In the late 1990s, international attention was drawn above all to his Amorales vs. Amorales performances. In the performances, the artist dealt with Mexican wrestling, a popular sport in which opponents stylised as being ‘good’ and ‘evil’ engage in a staged bout. For Amorales, these battles between ego and alter ego constituted an opportunity to find one’s identity and at the same time provided an artistic and performative level of experience.

At Kunsthalle Fridericianum, a big collection of pictures, posters and texts, as well as sound recording media, document the record label and art project Nuevos Ricos in a large space. The abstract floor plan of a concert hall serves as a platform for performances and concerts as well as for discussions about topics such as copyrighting and piracy. Typical merchandising articles like T-shirts are presented in a franchise shop, while the provocatively juxtaposed “Pirate Franchise Shop” raises questions about original and copy, touching upon both the music industry and the art market. In both areas Nuevos Ricos takes a position that represents a real alternative to pure commerce. Modern means such as digital copying or downloading from the Internet are not viewed as threats but as opportunities.

In addition, Carlos Amorales presents an excerpt of his Liquid Archive, a processual work he began about ten years ago. It is a digital picture archive that became a store of individual iconography. Formally reduced and emphatically monochrome, particularly in the colours red and black, this pictorial collection consists of motifs which through ever-changing combinations give rise to surreal, often bleak fantasy worlds recalling both classical mythology and modern horror movies — parallel worlds to everyday life. At Kunsthalle Fridericianum a 30-metre-long wall piece shows how ever-new impressions can continually be created from just a few repeated motifs. Furthermore, the typography of the Liquid Archive is on display. Individual letters printed on posters are combined to form statements and cover entire wall areas.