Vaasa in Luck



27.8. – 23.9.2011, Vaasa (Vasa), Finland

VAASA IN LUCK is a project in which objects are traded for objects: I have a piece of gold, which I offer to trade for something of lesser value. The object I get in return I will again offer for exchange, and again, and again, until I am left with nothing.

VAASA IN LUCK is a mediation on a well-known fairy tale collected by the brothers Grimm, entitled Hans im Glück (Hans in Luck). In this fairy tale, Hans, after 7 years of servitude, is set free by his master and rewarded with “a piece of gold as big as his head”. On his journey home, Hans first trades the piece of gold for a horse, then the horse for a cow, the cow for a pig, the pig for a goose, the goose for a grindstone that eventually falls into a well. Left with nothing, Hans is happy: “No one under the sun is as fortunate as I am”.



Esther Pilkington 2011