Eldorado Gold (no. 8/12), 2011
Laser print and gold-plated frame
ΕΜΣΤ Collection
Acquired 2022
The share we see here is a conceptual play on the contemporary political-economic system. The work evokes a promise of wealth. It resembles an actual share certificate, one of a series of twelve representing an equivalent value of the total portfolio of the Canadian company Eldorado Gold, set within a gold-plated frame. On the reverse, the terms of its circulation are specified, along with details such as the following: issued by the artist on September 13, 2011; in the event of a stock split or reverse split, the owner will always be entitled to one-twelfth of the portfolio. Sven Johne will retain one share for himself for the rest of his life, corresponding to the work Eldorado Gold, edition no. 1/12. This work brings into focus the activities of the Canadian company Eldorado Gold in countries such as Greece, Turkey, Brazil, China, and the USA. Mining for the extraction of precious metals is often at the centre of public controversy at the local, national, and international levels. It is associated with concerns about environmental destruction, fears regarding its impact on public health and indigenous communities, and questions about who ultimately benefits or owns the land.
Eldorado Gold’s operations, including the gold mines in Skouries (Chalkidiki), have often been the subject of Sven Johne’s work. His photographs depict the quiet and neutral natural landscape, while the brief texts and narratives that accompany them reveal a tension between image and language. Among other things, in Eldorado Gold Johne asks who holds power over a place. In a region where a company secures the right to extract minerals, can a share, a piece of paper, amount to access to land ownership and the transfer of authority that allows for its management? Who makes these agreements that may go against the will of local communities? And what divides residents into opposing camps for and against such investment? The work evokes the myth of “El Dorado”, meaning “gilded” or “covered in gold” in Spanish, and refers to imaginary places in South America where one could become “golden” themselves by supposedly acquiring untold riches and gold. On a second reading, this utopia is grounded in human greed, the destruction of ecosystems, and colonial-style impositions; in other words, it becomes a kind of dystopia.
Sven Johne was born in Bergen (Rügen Island, former East Germany) in 1976. He lives and works in Berlin.
