Often Simply

“When you engage with economic growth, there is one word that is always mentioned and that serves, almost automatically, as the justification for all economic activity: PROSPERITY. There is a lot of talk about this ‘prosperity,’ but the term itself is rarely defined. ‘The economy has to grow, otherwise we risk our prosperity,’ is something that is often stated quite simply.

Since the economy does not provide a definition, we considered for ourselves what prosperity could mean: a happy life for everyone (as measured, for example, by the state of Bhutan through its Gross National Happiness), the freedom to determine how we use our own time, opportunities for self-realization, decent work, an intact natural environment, (free) education, affordable housing, art and culture, justice, a livable planet, democracy, and more. It is precisely these achievements that are threatened and sacrificed in the pursuit of an ever-higher GDP.

That this is a contradiction can be seen in a statement made by the former Federal Chancellor at an employers’ meeting in October 2024: ‘This has to go.’ What was meant was the so-called Supply Chain Act, which had only just come into force and is intended to ensure corporate responsibility in global supply chains. This includes environmental protection, fair wages, occupational safety, and protection against child labor. Hardly in force, the law is already being debated again because it allegedly impairs economic turnover – so away with it.

The image is intense; everything is technical. There is no nature, no people—only an industrialization of the mechanisms of economic growth. Many contemporary works aim to present a positive solution, a way out, so that viewers are left with the feeling that perhaps not everything is so bad. This is not the case here. There is nothing positive about this topic – but there is a way out: rethinking.”

“Political art is representational…,” LAPIZ says in the fokusglobal podcast, where he explains in more detail the complexity of the working process, the content, positions, and discussions that fed into the mural motif.

After the design by Elmar Karla and LAPIZ was completed, various stakeholders from the fields of media literacy, supply chain legislation, fair trade, and the economy for the common good were invited to an expert exchange in order to contribute their expertise and perspectives to the discussion.

The intensive engagement with GDP and the Supply Chain Act resulted in another motif by LAPIZ entitled “Fortschrittlos – No Progress,” which can be seen in Berlin at the Urban Canvas parking garage (curated by Liebe zur Kunst).