Koch & James is an Artist Duo based in Karlsruhe, Germany

Andreea-Sorina Koch, (*1990 Timișoara, ROM) Joe Krasean, (*1983, Minneapolis, Minnesota, US)

Contemporary Art Artist Duo Karlsruhe

Andreea-Sorina Koch

Joe Krasean

Koch & James Artist Duo based in Karlsruhe, Germany. Minnesota Minneapolis USA, Kunst.

Zeitgenössische Kunst Joe Krasean und Andreea-Sorina Koch

Koch and James is an artist duo, based in Karlsruhe.

Contemporary art

Young Art. New Art. Neue Kunst. Kunstprojekte. Art Projects

Intermedia, Ceramics, Embroidery, Conceptual art, Video, Photo, Kunstakademie Karlsruhe, Master of Fine Arts, Meisterschülerin, Leni Hoffmann

Archive ART

CV

Table Read

Contemporary Art Artist Duo Karlsruhe

What is Koch & James?

Can we say anything interesting about marketing, branding, advertising, identity management, image management, social media—in short, the entire psychological apparatus of grabbing people’s attention and establishing yourself as a player? Can we say that this apparatus is becoming more important than anything it purports to serve? Can we say, to the extent that art is a mirror or focusing lens for a larger cultural field, that it completely makes sense that art making would be saturated by this anxious professionalism?

Would we be surprised at all to learn that students are seeking help from agencies to craft convincing artistic identities before they even apply to art school? Would we be surprised at all to learn that some of the best art work today is largely the fabrications of very savvy marketers and ad wizards? Can we still be surprised? 

It’s quite clear that artists need good advertising—quality images, clear identities, riveting essays and press releases. But do the advertisers need the artists? How long do we have to wait before the galleries and agencies cut out the middle man and just start making the art work themselves? Is it already happening?

Koch & James is an advertising agency. 

Contemporary Art Artist Duo Karlsruhe

 

Koch & James is an artist duo.

 

 It all started as a joke that made too much sense. We began from precisely this position—the agencies don’t need the artists anymore, so the artists should become agencies. The joke turned real and we started getting actual jobs, both in the commercial world and in the art world. 

We are a real fake agency. We are real fake artists. Our position becomes evacuated the moment that it is established. We want to replace the sense of progress or climbing with a sense of failure or falling. We are falling. To mistake the humor for a joke is to mistake the form for a surface. We have completed projects for some very big-name entities.

We have no use for art objects, yet we will continue to make them. We have no use for artistic identities, yet we will continue to make those as well. We are permanent freelancers, adrift in the gig economy. We want to steal your money. Our true creative spirits are secrets that we keep from ourselves. We don’t deserve authenticity and wouldn’t know what to do with it if we had it. 

We are available for hire. This project is an effort to trace the lines of our own corruption. Everyone is a client, most of all us. The answer is yes. The time is morning.

Good Art

Gute Kunst