Capital Presents

CAPITAL PRESENTS*: CAPITAL - A Critique of Political Economy
Donation Transfers of Capital to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Germany
2009 - 2052, approximately.

*The German title MACHT GESCHENKE implies “MAKE A GIFT!” , “GIFTS OF POWER” as well as “POWERFUL GIFTS”

 

CAPITAL - A Critique of Political Economy, vol. 1 - 3, Karl Marx. 1890

Since May 25, 2009, I have been making daily money transfers of 1 cent to the German Federal Ministry of Finance, thus helping to counter the growing mountain of debts in homeopathic doses. In the field »reason for payment«, I always write 108 characters from Capital: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx. In this way, bit by bit, the entire text of the book will be transferred into the state’s central account via online banking.
 

copying the characters to tally sheets and money transfer forms

tally sheet, detail, 7 bank transfers per sheet, each with 108 characters

The transmission of the roughly 1,696,500 characters will take about 43 years. The necessary transfer sum of 15,709 cents will enter the state’s budget as an economic capital gain of the same amount. The value increase of the capital investment through interest and compound interest is not even included, nor are the required labor and lifetime or the added value through cultural and symbolic capital calculated into this.
 

sketch: stray cents, transfers and transactions

CAPITAL, which inscribes itself irrevocably into accounts and archives, is a donation to the entire people, entered into the state budget of the FRG, administered by the currently elected representatives, and safely stored at the Bundesbank (Germany’s Central Bank).
If the national debt could be frozen at the current amount of 1,746,599,197,210 Euro, my donation, due to the exponential effects of interest and compound interest, could pay this debt off within 300 years.
Each of the roughly 15,709 money transfers is documented per screenshot, printed out once on document paper, signed, and then in the course of the project given away to individual citizens standing for the population as a whole.
At the same time, in over-subscriptions on translucent paper, I cross out character by character and thus produce, analogously to the book, an unreadable notation of Capital, consisting of counting marks and numerals.
At the end of this project, there will be a cumulative capital gain and added value in several respects, which cannot be expressed with numbers and characters alone.

 

notational system of counting marks and numerals; “over-subscriptions“ of Capital on translucent paper

CAPITAL PRESENTS*: CAPITAL counteracts the ruling political economy and senseless, degrading bureaucracy with the gesture of giving, and poses the question of meaning. The system sees itself in the mirror.

Once a day, the micro-donations upset the state’s balance sheet - for about the length of one breath. They serve as triggers for a debate on values that produces continuous reflections and echoes, provoking sustained thinking.

 

unique signed print-outs of transfer vouchers, personally presented to members of the German Federal Parliament and Federal Ministers (abbr.: Rainer Brüderle, Dr. Thomas de Maizière, Brigitte Zypries), German Federal

German Federal Parliament, Berlin

text by Christin Lahr, 2010
images:
photos by Christin Lahr
video stills by 3SAT Kulturzeit, Christin Daum

 

Attempt to enter the German Federal Ministry of Finance to make a personal present to Minister of Finance, Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble.

unique signed print-out of transfer voucher Nr. 00012, personally presented to Rainer Brüderle, Federal Minister for Economics and Technology, German Federal Parliament, Berlin, February 9th, 2010

CAPITAL PRESENTS: CAPITAL; “real film“, money transfers as picture sequence, example: transfer voucher Nr. 00005; as unique signed print-out, personally presented to Frank-Walter Steinmeier (former Vice Chancellor of FRG)

CAPITAL PRESENTS, money transfer form, 1 Cent

FEATURED THEME ON CITY SHARING

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