RAM in cooperation with BANK presents Vive Le Capital, an evening where art meets global commerce that explores, celebrates, and critiques the omnipresent power of global finance through the perspectives from artists and others that examine the momentous and intimate experiences with multi-national capitalism. Creative practices will be considered as impressed in the world of global capital and finance, rather than reducing them to vapid gestures of political correctness or over-simplifying dichotomies of morality.

A round table discussion will be held among speakers and open questions from the audience. Christoph Draeger will present “Disaster Capitalism”, a live performative lecture, which discusses the legacy and intimate ties between global capitalism, disaster, and cultural production; with a focus on this dynamic artist’ s own projects. Wang Xin will lead a discussion about the subject and paradoxes of capitalism and labor in the contemporary arts.

Christoph Draeger, born 1965 in Zurich, is an internationally known conceptual artist who lives between New York and Vienna. Draeger’s projects take form in installation, video, and photo-based media to explore issues pertaining to disaster and media-saturated culture. 

Xin Wang is a curator and writer based in New York. A recent graduate from Columbia University’s MA program in Art History, she has worked as a special exhibition researcher at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has also co-curated Asian Contemporary Art Week 2014 and the New York solo debut of artist Lu Yang. Her writing has frequently appeared on exhibition catalogues and publications such as Artforum, Art in America, Flash Art, the Metropolitan Museum’s blog, Hyperallergic, and Leap. 

Mathieu Borysevicz, founder of international curatorial/consultancy office BANK/MABSOCIETY and co-curator of The Bank Show, Vive Le Capital.