Index Information

ICEBERG2024

The first solo exhibition of Gróf & Gyenes, An Iceberg of One’s Own (Magma, Sfântu Gheorghe, 2024), was inspired by the iceberg metaphor developed by Maria Mies. The German sociologist published The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalized Economy in 1999, in collaboration with Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen. One of the now-famous diagrams from this book presents the iceberg model of the capitalist-patriarchal economy. 

In this model, the tip of the iceberg represents the world of waged labor, governed by capital and employment contracts. Beneath the surface lies a series of invisible spheres that form its foundation: informal and unregulated labor relations, child labor, as well as subsistence and non-market economies.

Equally hidden from view, domestic and care work—primarily carried out by women—belong to the sphere of social reproduction, alongside the appropriation of colonial resources. At the very base of the entire structure is nature itself. This is the model of patriarchal capitalism, where the visible economy rests upon the invisible worlds of the exploited.  Gróf and Gyenes used one of the administrative system’s favorite graphic reproduction tools—the rubber stamp—to reinterpret this metaphor. 

Photos: Attila Kispál, Attila Törő

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