Sociologists study and teach a lot about social capital. James Coleman and Pierre Bourdieu each have coined social capital as a major foundation of societies. Therefore, the exhibition of the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija “happiness is not always fun” in the Martin Gropius Bau (Image below) is interesting beyond a justification art for art’s sake.
What does Tiravanija tell us about happiness and social capital we did not know before? The artist went to a Chicago based art school, hence, it is likely that he has been confronted with the concept of “social capital” by Chicago sociologist James Coleman. The Berlin exhibition of Tiravanija can be walked along and experienced through the lens of the creation of social capital as a form of art. Art raises awareness to the importance of social capital for the ways we live together and form communities. The Berlin exhibition, meeting place or play ground is worth multiple visits as the participatory experience changes each time. In each of the rooms we reflect on our cultural practices like sports, music, printing or cooking as forms to create community. Each time we take home a little bit of social capital as well. “Happiness is not always fun”, but for sure You’ll have many happy moments throughout the visit of the exhibition. The guided tour by curator Yasmil Raymond (2024-12-19) added yet another little bit of spice to the exhibits. For a few moments we felt like a strong link between Chicago and Berlin, just like those sociologists in Berlin who studied and continue to study James Colemen’s foundations of social theory.
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