10 UNEXPECTED FACTS ABOUT ANDY KASSIER

“Success is only a smile away,” says Andy Kassier. His hair and his smile are on point; the shoes and the Lamborghini are gleaming. Andy Kassier is super rich. His looks are dazzling, he is well dressed and never leaves the house without his smile. And of course, he always happens to be just where the sun is shining.

Andy Kassier has everything one needs to celebrate the art of the good life on social media: a smartphone and a mobile network. They allow him to always be at the right place at the right time. “I hate to spend money. Nothing is mine, but everything could be,” he says. “I don’t care about possession, I care about possibilities,” he explains. “What can you do without spending money?” Andy Kassier shows what is possible without having a bundle of cash. In this way, he wants to criticize success and coldness in the new meritocracy. Andy Kassier plays along on social media, but he does not exactly play fair. In actual fact, he cheats like everyone else, only he overdoes it without having to blush. And that is exactly as it should be: the exaggeration of self-promotion and self-improvement, the sarcasm and the irony, the art of trolling, as one could also say—all are part of his concept. He wants to be seen as a concept artist. Descriptions such as Post-Internet art or Net art, however, are also apt. He does not mind categorizations.

What does it mean to be perfect, an influencer, and to have prestige? Andy Kassier concentrates on the supposedly fundamental relationship between wealth and happiness. By asking the seemingly banal question of what constitutes happiness, he problematizes various aspects of wealth, greed, beauty, gender, narcissistic behavior, the good life, and the subject’s need of a self-image in late modernity.

Under the programmatic title “success is just a smile away,” German conceptual artist Andy Kassier tells the story of a self-made man driven by money and success. However, in the process Kassier over-worked himself. In spring 2019, a burnout drove him into the sea and he disappeared for half a year. Now he—and his character— are practicing self-love and self-care. He no longer lives on the fast lane. Still high above the ground, of course, he now sits on a swing in the midst of nature. “A stable job is a sign of weakness,” he once claimed. Today, he is on a path of self-discovery through yoga and meditation. With the help of alternative healing methods, he hopes to recalibrate his work-life balance. He takes time off to pause and think about things. His mirror reminds him: “Time to reflect.” Kassier lives in the here and now. Art allows him to maintain a mental equilibrium.