Tim Portlock, “Clearcut,” 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Join the founders of FICTILIS for a tour and discussion of their exhibition Museum of Capitalism at the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery in the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center Parsons School of Design.
The Museum of Capitalism is an institution dedicated to educating this and future generations about the history, philosophy, and legacy of capitalism. This exhibition traces a loose theme around borders, both physical and conceptual, between nations, between what was known as “the economy” and related domains of political, social, and environmental concern, and between institutions like the Museum of Capitalism and The New School. Exhibits and artifacts on display include American flags made by prison laborers, photographs of secretive international tax-havens, and an interactive hand-crank machine, which allows visitors to experience “minimum wage.” Loans from other collections include a series of objects from the U.S.-Mexico border and the world’s largest collection of branded pharmaceutical pens. On display for the first time, from the museum’s own collection, is documentation of a rare encounter between the infamous street artist Banksy and the multinational corporation Walmart.
This event is free and open to the public, but space is limited! Please RSVP by emailing rsvp@abladeofgrass.org. Thank you!
As part of this event, attendees are encouraged to bring artifacts of capitalism that we will use as a jumping off point for group discussion. Artifacts are objects related to the history or memory of capitalism, or tied to a personal experience that could help others to understand or feel how life was lived under capitalism. They may be printed materials, three-dimensional objects, or entire collections, and may consist of documents, correspondence, diaries, clothing, uniforms, and textiles, photographs and moving images, advertisements, trade publications and promotional materials, currencies, receipts, and other elements of consumer exchange, and samples of raw materials, finished products, or fragments of capitalist production. These will not be added to the exhibition’s artifact archive.
View from lobby near entrance to Museum of Capitalism hosted at New School’s Parsons School of Design. Photo by Marc Tatti.
Exhibits and artifacts on view were created and collected by: Daniel Bejar, Ben Bigelow, Dr. Jeffrey Caren, Center for Tactical Magic, Maia Chao, Cheyenne Concepción, Mark Curran, Jennifer Dalton, Sharon Daniel, Burak Delier, Clare Dibella, Blake Fall-Conroy, Paul Farber, Gabriele Galimberti and Paolo Woods, Marisa Morán Jahn, Nina Katchadourian and Julia Meltzer, Matt Kenyon, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Jessica Kingdon, Michael Mandiberg, Nyeema Morgan, Tim Portlock, Related Tactics, Eva Rocha, Sayler / Morris, Jesse Sugarmann, Igor Vamos, and Banksy and Walmart.
About FICTILIS
FICTILIS is a curatorial collective whose research-based projects, across many types of media and disciplines, share ongoing interests in language and taxonomy, materialisms and waste flows, monuments and public memory, and political ecology. Their work has appeared in a variety of settings, from vacant buildings and city streets to galleries and museums. In 2015 FICTILIS founded the Museum of Capitalism, an institution dedicated to educating this generation and future generations about the ideology, history, and legacy of capitalism, through exhibitions, research, publication, collecting and preserving material evidence, art, and artifacts of capitalism, and a variety of public programming.
