Thursday, September 28
7 pm
Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room, 86 34th St, Brooklyn, NY 11232 (Map here)

This lecture is FREE to all. Please RSVP with your email address at checkout.

When citizens of a virtual art-state took it upon themselves to create a new currency, they chose a radically different direction than the blockchain coins currently in vogue. By appropriating not only the physical materials but also the functional aspects of the existing financial apparatus, the principals of the NSK State Reserve extended the retro-avantgarde toolkit of the NSK State to bring the financial industry and its history into frame. This book reprints the notes and bonds created by The Reserve, recounts key events from the history of this institution, and offers direct insight into their process and principles.

Charles Lewis is an active citizen and diplomat of the NSK State, and has participated in many NSK State events including the Citizens' Congress, the three Folk Art Biennales, and the NSK State Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He has lectured on NSK-related topics at various institutions and events including Stony Brook University New York, The Morbid Anatomy Museum, the Hauser & Wirth gallery in New York, and MoMA, and is a principal of the NSK State Reserve. In addition to his work with the Reserve, Charles is a technologist in the financial industry, and has recently written a horror novel he describes as “Cormac McCarthy meets Love and Rockets.”

David K. Thompson is a native New Mexican multi-disciplinary artist. His art juxtaposes found-object readymades, machinery, propaganda, documents and other forms of æstheticised nationalism culminating in mechanized absurdity and delineated psychological geographies. Through the deliberate misuse of scientific or religious aesthetics, cartography, and political semiotics, his work questions taxonomy, the existential nature of identity, and even the notion of art itself. As a NSK State diplomatic passport-holder, david K has labored in the service of NSK State diplomacy, designing bureaucratic implements for many State functions including the NSK Passport Office, MoMA, New York and NSK Electronic Consulate New York, at e-flux, the NSK State Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and is a principal of the NSK State Reserve. He lives in Connecticut and is a museum professional at Yale University.

Jean “Valnoir” Simoulin was born in 1979. He founded his Parisian studio, Metastazis, in 2004, after graduating there with degrees in graphic design and art direction. Following a short stint in the corporate world, he began developing his activities in the fields of extreme heavy metal and industrial music—scenes for which he has, ultimately, authored cover art, visual identities, and all manner of artistic support for more than 300 bands, spanning from Led Zeppelin to Laibach. In 2006 he published a manifesto that, with regards to a designer’s artistic vision, demands total trust from the client, from beginning to end; a project should be accepted or rejected in its entirety, without compromise. His various experimentations have at times led to unorthodox practices—he is responsible, among other things, for creating inks pigmented with human blood and bones. In 2013 he started to collaborate with the Norwegian director Morten Traavik, and engages in a number of cultural exchanges with North Korea. These culminate, in 2015, with the organization of the first rock concert in the history of the hermit state (Laibach – Liberation Day tour). Next to this, Valnoir is active as an author and editor in the book publishing industry, and is represented by four publishers on three continents. He has also directed music videos for Laibach, Pertubator, Drudkh, Coil and others. In 2022, he continues to live and work in Paris, France. As an NSK citizen and Diplomat, he has been active since 2002 in countless interventions in what would be called later on the “NSK Folk Art“ project.

Guest MC Gabrielle Heron (formerly St. Evensen) is a New York based voiceover and performance artist who became an NSK State Citizen in 2016 at a ceremony held at the headquarters of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), which commemorated the appearance of the Reserve at their annual art fair. Gabrielle is a spokesperson for the NSK State Reserve, and represented the Reserve in an interview with Alex Nym of NSK State Lipsk. Her economic views have been strongly influenced by the transactional nature of raising chickens.

FIAT is published by PC-Press publisher. Copies of the book will be available for sale and to sign on the night.