If capitalism is slowly on the outs, as some economists and theorists say it is, should there be a museum to preserve its artifacts? The Museum of Capitalism (MOC), an aspiring institution at the very earliest phase of development, opens its first exhibition this month in a disused warehouse in Oakland, California. Its ambitious goal is to educate future generations about the economic system’s “ideology, history, and legacy,” per its mission statement, in the vein of history museums and so-called museums of conscience.
Among the works in the show are Mexican artist Fran Ilich’s Space Bank/Money Museum (2005–2107), consisting of documentation of what the artist calls a functional alternative banking system. There’s also Dread Scott’s Poll Dance (2010), a series of graphs that riff on systems of classifying people by race, class, and gender. Other works address the vicissitudes of financial institutions: Superflex’s Bankrupt Banks (2012) consists of a set of banners with logos of banks that have declared bankruptcy, while Michael Mandiberg addresses the same theme with a set of tomes on economics, its book covers branded with logos of failed banks. And Blake Fall-Conroy’s Police Flags (2009) shows the parallel symbolism between the red, white, and blue police lights and the colors of the US flag.
