Milena Büsch
Laundering money in the basement on Lyal Road in London was a hustle. The long night shifts at Hessische Kulturstiftung residency could get blurry sometimes when pushing the boundaries of labour the body can handle. But cookies kept the energy up late at night and so did Joan Baez. If the amount of conversations had been recorded then no-one could ever claim again that artists are slackers. On the contrary, I have to admit that I am relieved that these conversations stayed off tape. Anyway, I was there, where were you?
This is the restaging of Milena Büsch’s exhibition that was the third in line of five in total that Niklas Lichti hosted at Geld during his year long artist residency in Bow 2018. The supply of Käsespätzle and the liquid gluttony that me, Milena and other visitors demanded became a full time job for Niklas that year. The generous gesture was cool again. But generosity can also feel excluding for the ones not invited. I mean you can’t be generous to every single person in the whole wide world… or… maybe if we take turns, each one in their own capacity, each one in their own style.
But hosting is not paying for itself, and paintings are not painting themselves, someone has to deliver. Counterfeit money, fake surface, surface on surface, paint on paint, paint on a headless toy packed in plastic. The chicken production filled the walls under the hatch on the ground floor. It’s hard to avoid considering that geld is not only a germanic word for money, it is also the word for removing the testicles of a person or an animal. Maybe the currency-themed project space was not laundering money after all. Maybe all the images of cash was just a cover up for another kind of business.
Text: Tomas Rydin
![](/site/assets/files/4761/felix-gaudlitz_fig-996_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.600x0.jpg?v=636e5a07 600w, /site/assets/files/4761/felix-gaudlitz_fig-996_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.900x0.jpg?v=636e5a08 900w, /site/assets/files/4761/felix-gaudlitz_fig-996_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.1200x0.jpg?v=636e5a0a 1200w, /site/assets/files/4761/felix-gaudlitz_fig-996_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.1500x0.jpg?v=636e5a0d 1500w, /site/assets/files/4761/felix-gaudlitz_fig-996_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.1800x0.jpg?v=636e5a0f 1800w, /site/assets/files/4761/felix-gaudlitz_fig-996_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.2200x0.jpg?v=636e5a14 2200w, /site/assets/files/4761/felix-gaudlitz_fig-996_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.2600x0.jpg?v=636e5a19 2600w, /site/assets/files/4761/felix-gaudlitz_fig-996_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.3000x0.jpg?v=63dbcc7c 2668w)
Milena Büsch, Restaging Geld, 2022, Wooden miniature exhibition space, neon light, wooden miniature bench, Oil on plush chicken and carboard, plastic, 171 × 148,5 × 104 cm (67.323 × 85.465 × 40.945 in)
![](/site/assets/files/4764/felix-gaudlitz_fig-997_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.600x0.jpg?v=636e5a1b 600w, /site/assets/files/4764/felix-gaudlitz_fig-997_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.900x0.jpg?v=63721eb2 900w, /site/assets/files/4764/felix-gaudlitz_fig-997_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.1200x0.jpg?v=636e5a1e 1200w, /site/assets/files/4764/felix-gaudlitz_fig-997_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.1500x0.jpg?v=636e5a20 1500w, /site/assets/files/4764/felix-gaudlitz_fig-997_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.1800x0.jpg?v=660ea97c 1800w, /site/assets/files/4764/felix-gaudlitz_fig-997_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.2200x0.jpg?v=636e5a26 2200w, /site/assets/files/4764/felix-gaudlitz_fig-997_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.2600x0.jpg?v=636e5a2b 2600w, /site/assets/files/4764/felix-gaudlitz_fig-997_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld.3000x0.jpg?v=636e5a2c 2666w)
Milena Büsch, Restaging Geld, 2022, Wooden miniature exhibition space, neon light, wooden miniature bench, Oil on plush chicken and carboard, plastic, 171 × 148,5 × 104 cm (67.323 × 85.465 × 40.945 in)
![](/site/assets/files/4762/felix-gaudlitz_fig-999_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.600x0.jpg?v=636e5a2d 600w, /site/assets/files/4762/felix-gaudlitz_fig-999_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.900x0.jpg?v=636e5a2e 900w, /site/assets/files/4762/felix-gaudlitz_fig-999_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.1200x0.jpg?v=636e5a30 1200w, /site/assets/files/4762/felix-gaudlitz_fig-999_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.1500x0.jpg?v=636e5a32 1500w, /site/assets/files/4762/felix-gaudlitz_fig-999_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.1800x0.jpg?v=636e5a34 1800w, /site/assets/files/4762/felix-gaudlitz_fig-999_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.2200x0.jpg?v=636e5a38 2200w, /site/assets/files/4762/felix-gaudlitz_fig-999_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.2600x0.jpg?v=636e5a3d 2600w, /site/assets/files/4762/felix-gaudlitz_fig-999_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.3000x0.jpg?v=636e5a3d 2668w)
Milena Büsch, Restaging Geld, 2022 (Detail), Wooden miniature exhibition space, neon light, wooden miniature bench, Oil on plush chicken and carboard, plastic, 171 × 148,5 × 104 cm (67.323 × 85.465 × 40.945 in)
![](/site/assets/files/4763/felix-gaudlitz_fig-998_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.600x0.jpg?v=636e5a3e 600w, /site/assets/files/4763/felix-gaudlitz_fig-998_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.900x0.jpg?v=636e5a40 900w, /site/assets/files/4763/felix-gaudlitz_fig-998_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.1200x0.jpg?v=636e5a41 1200w, /site/assets/files/4763/felix-gaudlitz_fig-998_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.1500x0.jpg?v=636e5a43 1500w, /site/assets/files/4763/felix-gaudlitz_fig-998_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.1800x0.jpg?v=63dbcc83 1800w, /site/assets/files/4763/felix-gaudlitz_fig-998_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.2200x0.jpg?v=636e5a49 2200w, /site/assets/files/4763/felix-gaudlitz_fig-998_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.2600x0.jpg?v=636e5a4e 2600w, /site/assets/files/4763/felix-gaudlitz_fig-998_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.3000x0.jpg?v=636e5a4f 2668w)
Milena Büsch, Restaging Geld, 2022 (Detail), Wooden miniature exhibition space, neon light, wooden miniature bench, Oil on plush chicken and carboard, plastic, 171 × 148,5 × 104 cm (67.323 × 85.465 × 40.945 in)
![](/site/assets/files/4765/felix-gaudlitz_fig-1000_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.600x0.jpg?v=636e5a50 600w, /site/assets/files/4765/felix-gaudlitz_fig-1000_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.900x0.jpg?v=6557852e 900w, /site/assets/files/4765/felix-gaudlitz_fig-1000_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.1200x0.jpg?v=636e5a53 1200w, /site/assets/files/4765/felix-gaudlitz_fig-1000_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.1500x0.jpg?v=636e5a55 1500w, /site/assets/files/4765/felix-gaudlitz_fig-1000_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.1800x0.jpg?v=636f96ab 1800w, /site/assets/files/4765/felix-gaudlitz_fig-1000_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.2200x0.jpg?v=636e5a5b 2200w, /site/assets/files/4765/felix-gaudlitz_fig-1000_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.2600x0.jpg?v=636e5a60 2600w, /site/assets/files/4765/felix-gaudlitz_fig-1000_2022_milena-busch_restaging-geld-_detail.3000x0.jpg?v=636e5a61 2668w)
Milena Büsch, Restaging Geld, 2022 (Detail), Wooden miniature exhibition space, neon light, wooden miniature bench, Oil on plush chicken and carboard, plastic, 171 × 148,5 × 104 cm (67.323 × 85.465 × 40.945 in)
Photography: kunst-dokumentation.com