NEVADA · not so long ago artist-gone-banker Dadara’s nomadic exchange booth, the Exchanghibitionbank, popped up in the KUNSTHALLE, where he also spoke about the meaning of currency or the lack thereof. the sensation moves on the lines of the known, familiar and regulated, only to break this shell by interrogating the relationship between human beings and today’s mechanized function of money. the Exchanghibitionbank’s beautifully illustrated and coloristic banknotes transform money into art, awakening the true significance of value. since then Dadara’s exchange booth has also been spreading love at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

as an artist-in-residence at the BE Performance Festival in Birmingham, Dadara’s thoughts on money have been the source of inspiration for the work of a group of performers. he himself is currently developing the artistic economy analysis into what will become his next project “Like 4 Real”, which has caught the attention of both Huffingtonpost and Time.com.

following “Fools Ark” (2002), “Burning Greymen” (2003), “Checkpoint Dreamyourtopia” (2008), “Exchanghibition Bank” (2011) and the “Transformoney Tree” (2012), “Like 4 Real” will be featured as Dadara’s sixth installation at Burning Man, Nevada.

characteristically positioned in a border sphere, Dadara’s “Like 4 Real” invites you to either take the blue or red pill, leading you to stay in reality or plunge into Likewonderland. the project highlights the alienating gap floating between the online-offline worlds and how in fact the digitalized era is slowly sinking into a state of oblivion. what better location than the wiped slates of Nevada’s dusty desert to frame an installation that seeks to awaken our consciousness and reinstate a forgotten connectedness?

the project is centered around our current like-society, which has turned the gesture of liking into a commodity and even the new gold, according to Dadara. this is clearly referenced in the gold surface of the installation: an enormous Facebook ‘like-hand’ situated on a black platform that forms steps, where the burners will be able to sit and chat. the installation is just the physical object of what is meant to be a spiritual exercise consisting of a ‘Like tribe’ that seeks to reach ‘Enlikement’ through chanting, dancing and drumming.

‘Like 4 Real’ is a manifest representation of a new deity that society worships without really comprehending it, without having gone through a formal baptism. when materialized, the reality we live in and its absurd facets are rendered transparent.

check out some more photos from Dadara’s Exchanghibition Bank at the KUNSTHALLE as well as his talk at Standup Inspiration in Amsterdam!

contributed by Martina Antunovic/ photos from Dadara's archive.