As fee-free credit, a suitcase containing video equipment changed hands again and again, traveling the world. On each trip, the collaboration of those whose hands the suitcase passed through resulted in the creation of a unique Chain Film.
Start the circulation
CREDIT #1-7 was a participatory video project at the intersection of art and economics, initiated by Johannes Burr. Every now and then, from 2006 to 2012, the artist changed sides and slipped into the role of a banker. As a mobile credit bank, he traveled in different countries seeking interested people who might be willing, as a borrower, to accept a suitcase from him labelled “CREDIT”. Its contents included, among other things, video camera equipment.
From 2006 to 2012, the CREDIT Suitcase went into circulation seven times, passing through the hands of seven times seven people, in different locations spread across the world. The collaboration of the participants generated by each circulation resulted in the creation of a Chain Film. Seven Chain Films were produced in this way. They document the processes of their own creation and reveal the inner workings of underlying social structures as they tell the personal stories of the protagonists seen through their own eyes.
Almost every Chain Film was screened – following completion of its respective suitcase circulation – as a video installation in an exhibition at the production location. Exhibition venues included Kunsthalle Basel (Switzerland), arttransponder Berlin (Germany), Kronika – Centre for Contemporary Art Bytom (Poland), Künstlerdorf Schöppingen (Germany), Museu da UFPA Belém do Pará (Brazil), Nextex St. Gallen (Switzerland).
