Jeu de Paume's 'The Supermarket of Images' Explores Image Economy

The Jeu de Paume in Paris presents 'The Supermarket of Images,' a group exhibition running from February 11 to June 7, 2020. Curated by Peter Szendy, Emmanuel Alloa, and Marta Ponsa, the show draws from Szendy's 2019 book of the same name. It investigates the 'economy' governing the hyperproduction of images—their management, transport, dissemination, and cultural and monetary value—a concept Szendy terms 'iconomy.' Featuring 48 international artists, the exhibition includes Andreas Gursky's 'Amazon' (2016), a monumental photograph of an Amazon warehouse critiquing consumer culture; Evan Roth's 'Since You Were Born' (2019-2020), an installation covering walls with cached browser data; Maurizio Cattelan's 'Untitled' (2001), miniature elevators; Martha Rosler's 'Cargo Cult' (1966-72); and Trevor Paglen's 'NSA-Tapped Undersea Cables, North Pacific Ocean' (2016). Historical figures like Yves Klein, Sergei Eisenstein, Victor Vasarely, and László Moholy-Nagy are also included, with Moholy-Nagy's 'Telephone Pictures' (1923) anticipating immaterial, information-based images.