Steal?

October 2nd, 2021| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

Last week, the good folks at Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg, northern Denmark, received a few boxes from Jens Haaning, an artist they had commissioned. They had loaned Herre Haaning over half-million kroner to create some art for a new installation. The man already had two works displayed in the museum, works actually made with displays of cash; the current project, including the KR500,000, was to be a recreation of those two pieces.

So you can expect the curators’ surprise when they found, in those boxes, two empty frames!

Understandably, the Aalborg museum is accusing Haaning of breaking their legal agreement and demanding the artist return the KR534,000, the equivalent of over USD$84,000.

Replied Haaning, in an interview with Danish radio show “P1 Morgen.”

The work is that I have taken their money.”

And the new name for the artwork? “Take the Money and Run.”

The 56-year-old Haaning’s pieces were meant to be part of a new exhibition at the Kunsten Museum about the labor market entitled “Work It Out,” running through early 2022.

Apparently, the museum would pay Haaning KR50,000 (about US$8,000), in addition to fronting the cash that was to be displayed in the two pieces. But when Haaning discovered it would cost him KR25,000 (about US$3,900) alone to fund the project, he changed his plans.

Why do I not make a work that is about my own work situation?”

“Work It Out,” after all was the theme of the exhibition. And Haaning decided to “work it out.”

My new artworks are an apt representation of the museum’s exhibit and encourages others to reexamine their work conditions.”

Lasse Andersson, the museum director, agrees, to his credit, that Haaning’s work is appropriate for collection but stipulated that his decision to take the money for himself violates their legal agreement.

He, too, came on “P1 Morgen”:

I want to give Jens absolutely the right that a work has been created in its own right, which actually comments on the exhibition we have. But that is not the agreement we had.”

But Haaning is standing strong, noting that his decision is what makes the empty frames works of art.

It’s not theft. It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work.”

January 14, 2022, is the deadline for Haaning to return the monies.

But, despite Haaning’s alleged breach of his agreement, Kunsten Museum is still displaying the works he sent them last week.

Andersson, in the Danish Newspaper, Jyllands-Posten:

It’s a comment on how we all work, and it’s probably also a comment on the value of what he creates. So there are lots of layers that we think are interesting.”

Lots of layers, indeed.

We’ll keep it simple. Taking money from another without that that one’s permission is stealing.

On the other hand In God’s economy, in God’s ideal world, here’s what must occur between members of God’s community:

He who steals must no longer steal, but rather he must labor,
working with his own hands what is good,
so that he may have [something] to share with the one having need.
Ephesians 4:28

You might remember that earlier in Ephesians, God was said to have prepared “good works” for his people to do.

We are His workmanship,
having been created in Christ Jesus for good works
that God prepared beforehand,
so that we may walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10

The connections are obvious: the “good works” God has prepared for believers to do, must be “worked” for “good” by believers.

Nope, “Take the Money and Run,” is not an option.

SOURCE:
MSN