artist’s economy – Joachim Schmid

2024-10-212024-10-10

Fast Photo (2024)

Fast Photo documents the interaction of several technical devices – an automobile, a radar station, and a camera. The camera is triggered by a radar and takes a photograph of a speeding car. The only purpose is the identification of car and driver. There is no photographer involved and there are no aesthetic considerations; it represents the photographic process in its crudest form, the exact opposite of haute photographie. The “price” of a fast photo – the ticket paid by the car’s driver – stands in inverse proportion to its low photographic quality.

Ongoing series, pigment ink prints (20 x 15 cm each), open edition
A catalogue is available in the series of white books.

2021-03-012023-09-14

Steuerfreie Einkünfte

Following a dispute with the fiscal authorities about taxable income and tax-deductible expenses, I started playing with the tax inspectors. What expenses are deductible, what income is taxable, and what income is free of tax? It’s a tricky field, however, there’s one thing that’s clearly free of tax, and that is money found in the street. If finding things in the street is your work, related expenses are deductible. For the past ten years picking up money was one of my works, Steuerfreie Einkünfte. I made annual inventories of the found money in book form with photographs of all the coins and notes I found. A complete ten volumes report is now available in an edition of ten copies. The price of the edition is determined by the total of the found money (tax-free income of 141.51 €) plus the cost for printing the reports (tax-deductible expenses of 83.72 € per copy). A signed and numbered certificate states the value of the work.
2021
digital print, colour
10 volumes, 14.8 x 10.5 cm each, total of 844 pages
softcover, sewn
with a certificate of value, numbered and signed
in a slipcase
limited edition of 10 copies
225.23 €

2016-03-032024-05-01

¥€$

Artists’ books come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. I prefer the ones that are conceptually striking, not made for the sake of craft. Usually these are simple, small, and cheap. Often I wonder about the economy of artists’ books. We work and make and publish books in small editions, and then we sell them at reasonable prices. How does this work? This book explains in detail how artists make (or lose) money with self-published books. The book comes in two editions: the regular edition that is very affordable and a very limited edition that makes the money.
2016
digital print, b/w
14.8 x 10.5 cm, 48 pages
softcover, sewn
100 copies
20 € (last copy)

limited edition of 4 copies (+ 1 AP) with an original signed and stamped banknote (one copy for each of the currencies mentioned in the book: ¥, €, $, and £); the limited edition is out of stock

2015-08-172020-12-17

IKEA Sucks

IKEA sucks. In my opinion they owe me money. They don’t agree. In order to recuperate the disputed amount I made this book. The prices of all items bought at IKEA are listed in the book. The revenue from sales of the complete edition equals the total of my purchase.
All materials used for the production of the book were involuntarily supplied by IKEA. The book’s pages are IKEA note sheets, the cover is made of IKEA wrapping paper and cardboard, the typographic elements and photos are taken from the IKEA catalog. The twenty-five copies of the book are numbered and signed using an IKEA pencil which is attached to each copy. Everything is kept neat and flat and in place by a belly band made of an IKEA measuring tape.
IKEA is a registered trademark of Inter IKEA Systems B.V.
2015
22 x 10.5 cm, 36 pages
hardcover, perfect bound
25 copies (+ 2 AP), numbered and signed
49 €

2013-07-212021-04-12

Kunst gegen Essen

A concise reflection on art, economy, and food, published on the occasion of an exhibition which was held in an Italian restaurant in Berlin and for which I received payment in food and wine.
1996 by Edition Fricke & Schmid
offset, b/w
21 x 14.8, 16 pages + 9 separate colour reproductions
softcover
500 copies
ISBN 3 927365 31 9
8 €

2012-02-242021-03-05

Steuerfreie Einkünfte (2011–2020)

Steuerfreie Einkünfte (tax-free income) grew directly out of the long-time project Bilder von der Straße. Looking out for abandonded photographs in the streets, it was inevitable that I found other things, too, such as money. Usually, this would be in the form of small coins but occasionally, I would find a banknote. For many years I simply picked all these up and put them in my wallet. In 2011, I began to make annual inventories of the found money after an interesting dispute with the fiscal authorities about tax-deductible expenses and the character of some of my works such as Bilder von der Straße.
The project’s accounting is public. A complete report was published in book form after the ten-year project was completed.

Tax-free income accumulated in
2011: CAD 0.25 + DEM 0.01 + EUR 0.97 + GBP 0.06 + USD 0.20 – Total: EUR 1.37
2012: CAD 0.01 + CHF 1.00 + EUR 4.49 + PLN 0.04 + USD 1.67 – Total: EUR 6.34
2013: EUR 19.30 + GBP 0.28 + MAD 5.00 + PLN 2.02 + USD 0.42 $ – Total: EUR 20.87
2014: CHF 0.05 + DKK 1.00 + EUR 23.63 + GBP 0.01 + MXN 0.10 + USD 3.60 $ – Total: EUR 26.77
2015: BGN 0.01 + CAD 0.05 + CHF 0.05 + DDM 0.20 + DEM 0.01 + EUR 24.51 + TRY 0.10 + USD 5.59 – Total: EUR 29.91
2016: CHF 0.50 + DKK 2.50 + EUR 7.02 + GBP 1.05 + USD 0.58 – Total: EUR 9.53
2017: EUR 9.36 + USD 0.42 – Total: EUR 9.71
2018: CNY 1.20 + CZK 2.00 + EUR 8.72 + GBP 0.05 + THB 0.50 – Total: EUR 9.03
2019: BRL 0.60 + CZK 1.00 + EUR 13.39 + PLN 0.10 – Total: EUR 13.59
2020: EUR 14.39 – Total: EUR 14.39

Total 2011–2020: EUR 141.51
BGN 0,01
BRL 0,60
CAD 0,31
CHF 1,60
CNY 1,20
CZK 3,00
DDM 0,20
DEM 0,02
DKK 3,50
EUR 125,78
GBP 1,45
MAD 5,00
MXN 0,10
PLN 2,16
THB 0,50
TRY 0,10
USD 12,48