Is love compatible with global trade? How can we build our lives with bees and goats and donkeys, or with trees and forests, within our advanced industrial complex? How can we cooperate with other species? 

In 2018, Bill Burns began a trading project at Atelier Amden in the Swiss Alps. He procured some salt from the local mine, loaded it on to two donkeys and walked up towards the summit. On the way up he traded some salt for apples at the orchard, and some apples for honey at the beekeeper’s place. At the top he served sliced apples topped with a drizzle of honey and a pinch of salt. 

Bill will show new works about his long duration performance wherein he trades goods and moves them across mountains, land and sea. He suggests these doings are re-enactments of global trade and power. At the show you will see some embroidered samplers, like those his mother used to make of farm animals and bees. You will also see some videos of a young woman trying on costumes of a donkey, a goat and a honey bee. You will see a great number of drawings of goats, sheep, donkeys, container ships, and aeroplane crashes. You will see stories about trading and books and dreams. The artist will also preview three work-in progress-costumes of a donkey, a goat and a honeybee that are destined for a performance collaboration with dramaturg Yeni Ma in Seoul, Korea early next year. 

There will be a number of events during the exhibition including:

A walk through on Thursday, May 30.

And an exhibition tour and conversation with Bill Burns and Paloma Collett that will take place TBA. 

The artist is very grateful to Luisa Milan for beautiful embroidery; Sarah MacKinnon for model making; Micah Adams for fine metal work; Pascale Déry for costume design; Paloma Collett for conversations; and Alfred Richterich Stiftung for early project support.