Ignacio Gatica.tanstaafl:there’s no Such Thing as a Free Lunch

For his first US solo exhibition at Interstate, Ignacio Gatica (b. 1988, Santiago, Chile) presents TANSTAAFL: There’s no such thing as a free lunch, a new series of work that maps out distinct forms of technology and quotidian interfaces throughout the gallery space.

The aphorism the show takes as its title was coined by Robert Heinlein in his 1966 science-fiction novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and appropriated by economist Milton Friedman, one of the forerunners of global neoliberalism.

Among the objects on view, some have been cast, while others hacked and their inner contents tampered with and rewritten. A group of resurrected titles rendered as faux-artifacts by way of their conversion into afflicted geological facsimiles are historicized in the present. These objects are arranged in constellation with one another and as they relate to ideas synthesized by the Mont Pelerin Society, an organization that established a new ideology intent on spreading free market principles in lieu of state interventionist policy.

A set of credit cards are encrypted with excerpts sourced from the referenced books. Visitors are encouraged to queue up and swipe the cards at a provided scanner in order to gain access to the content coded within each one.

Gatica’s investigation into the dissemination of neoliberal ideology is particularly apt, considering the parallel processes of economic restructuring that both New York City and Chile concurrently underwent in the 1970s. Gatica’s generation is the first product of this U.S.-backed experiment, experiencing the burden of its aftershocks, while earning a dual perspective conducive to a critical understanding of this event.

Vista de la exposición «TANSTAAFL: There’s no such thing as a free lunch», de Ignacio Gatica, en Interstate, Brooklyn, Nueva York, 2019. Cortesía de la galería