5. Maria Eichhorn: Money at the Kunsthalle Bern, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland, 2001
Maria Eichhorn’s intervention at Bern’s Kunsthalle was both a commentary on the realities of museum funding and an example of direct action: The artist opted to spend the budget allocated to her show on long-delayed repairs to the museum building, which was left completely empty during the period scheduled for the “exhibition.” In this manner Eichhorn drew attention to something the visitor does not usually see, namely, the artist’s point of departure when creating an exhibition — the empty gallery — and also ensured her “show” was prolonged well beyond its allotted time through the building’s renovation. The exact repairs were listed, with the cost and the name of the contractor, on the invitation to the opening, the exhibition poster, and the catalog cover. The catalog itself consisted of a detailed history of the Kunsthalle with an emphasis on its financing over the years. This had included, at the museum’s foundation, the issuing of share certificates, and Eichhorn added a further prong to her intervention by arranging for new certificates to be issued so as to increase the Kunsthalle’s capital. While her gestures may seem like charity turned into an art form, the actual legacy of her show for the Kunsthalle is, as she admits, ambivalent: The research she published in the catalog revealed a long history of mismanagement (money granted for repairs had repeatedly been used for other purposes), the museum lost admissions revenue during the exhibition because hardly anyone came, and the event generated a fair amount of negative publicity.