With the fictional juice brand MINT, Debora Delmar Corp. reflects upon the issues of value, displacement and the relationship of the cost of contemporary luxury items as results of our current health food trend. MINT takes its name from the acronym which references the economies of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. This term, popularized by Jim O’Neill from Goldman Sachs is used under the premise that these countries will become the future economic powers, transitioning from developing countries into “westernized” economies and societies.
The show, entitled *Headquarters*, is the constructed headquarters for the MINT enterprise, installed at Akademie der Künste on Pariser Platz in the 9th Berlin Biennale. Unlike the installation on view at AdK, which functions as a commercial space, *Headquarters* is a fictional start up office, where the main attributes have been kept, yet slightly distorted by the artist.
On the walls, abstract paintings made with matcha, wheat grass, “detox” and a “green beauty” powder form a series of works that underline both the decorative and the ideological aspects of consuming the products they are made with. Berlin based L&Z designer tables placed in the exhibition are covered with prints of the banners exhibited at AdK. The prints scattered on the tables give the impression of classic office paper while all over the room sculptures referring to an ideal human anatomy are filled with luscious flowers. All the works address a longing for an ecologically conscious, peaceful way to consume - in this case, through the consumption of healthy, expensive juices; yet, the feeling they supposedly convey is corrupted by what lies behind the works on view and the fictional product itself. Globalized agricultural trade is known to be an extremely aggressive economical environment, often keeping the primary producers of fruit and vegetables repressed and unable to make autonomous business decisions. The rough conditions in which often overpriced commodities are produced - such as the juices produced by MINT - are erased with smart and precise marketing tools, keeping our conscience clean while giving the impression that through adapting oneself to a certain lifestyle, we will be richer, healthier, happier. Through the medium of organic aesthetics, the MINT consumer is gulled by the allure and promise of a dream lifestyle. The space becomes an archetypal ‘new age’ office environment, seemingly subverting institutional hierarchy while insidiously remaining as a fundamentally capitalist structure. By including pieces produced by typical Berlin-based startups - namely bjuice and l&z elements - Delmar Corp. also ties notions of success and economic dynamism into her immersive installation, staging a cooperation between three brands that mostly target the same consumer group.