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61 corporations: money. “My art inhabits economic forms and sneaks into given capitalist structures. The art projects intend to create financial profit, which I have been continuously reinvesting com- pletely. This means the projects themselves create the budget for my next artistic investment.” Fleischmann currently has two separate artistic capitalist ventures on the go: a fashion label and a carbon credit farm. Myfashionindustries, which kicked off in 2008, is divided into two clothing labels: “Made in the Philippines” and “Made in North Korea.” On his website, Fleischmann frames the project as a commentary on commodity fetishism, or how a product’s value often has very little to do with the work that some laborer has put into its creation; that one garment can be grossly more expensive than another, even though both required similar amounts of human effort in their production. The stylish, Philippine-made dress shirts Fleischmann sells were manufactured at the Cavite Economic Zone in Rosario, where Fleischmann documented the working conditions. With this project, he adds to the massive archive of documentation about this free trade zone and the urban areas that sur- round it. His products, branded “Made in North Korea,” which are also trendy formal shirts, were produced at the infamous Gaeseong industrial complex, tucked a mere 10 kilometers north of the DMZ. Those who purchase one of the shirts will also re- ceive an artist book with more than 1,000 articles about the complex from the time when the shirts were produced. It’s because of this additional documentation that Fleischmann says these garments differ from the others made in the same region: “These shirts are not just commodities; they are an invitation, whereby other shirts are just an illusion. Mine are an invitation to explore, to see the shirt in context of its origin and the people who made it.” Fleischmann says a challenge his work presents is “finding a way to translate a process that is hap- pening in real life into an artistic form that can be experienced by a viewer.” More recently, he has been collaborating with other Cheongju-based artists on mycheongjuchan- delierchohab. “It’s a project about hierarchies,” Fleischmann says. “It’s about that fucked-up question, ‘What is art, what is design and what is craft?’” Fleischmann says they chose to explore this question by making site-specific chandeliers. “We asked the question: What is the difference between a light, a lamp and a chandelier? A light bulb sells for a dollar but a chandelier’s value is endless; it’s a very special category of object.” Unlike any of his other projects, Fleischmann says mycheongjuchandelierchohab offered him a form of escape. “I am a conceptual artist, and my framework of art is to play around and discover. This experiment offered me a rediscovery of work- ing with my hands and playing with form and taste, and not needing to fulfill any expectations of what art is and what artwork is.” At his shared studio and exhibition space, SA- LON VIT, he runs the Black Sheep Lecture Series, which he formed in 2009 with fellow Hansung University professor Hunyee Jung. The informal talks see international art practitioners engage and converse with the audience on a range of artistic issues and ideas. Since its inception, the series has hosted more than 50 artists. SALON VIT also acts as home base to Fleischmann’s newest en- deavor: listening events, where experimental elec- tronic music is played to a darkened room, send- ing listeners on unexpected auditory adventures. With new business ideas constantly abuzz in his head, it will be interesting to see how this artist continues to grow his empire. more info Find out more about Dirk Fleischmann at www.dirkfleischmann.net, www.facebook.com/ BlackSheepLectures, www.myforestfarm.com and www.myfashionindustries.com.