Art collective dares wealthy attendees to display their wealth

  • Installation at Art Basel Miami Beach is a working ATM that displays cash balances of anyone who uses it in real time
Updated 01 Dec, 2022

Pushing the boundaries of interactive art, Brooklyn art collective 'MSCHF' is challenging the wealthiest attendees to reveal themselves by using an 'ATM Leaderboard' at the Art Basel Miami Beach.

The installation is a working ATM that displays the cash balances of anyone who uses it, in real time, for the entire art fair to see. It further ranks users – with photos captured by the ATM's camera – according to the size of their bank accounts, listing them out like the high scores of a classic arcade game, reported CNN.

The current record held by one attendee is an individual with a $2.9-million account balance.

"'ATM Leaderboard' is an extremely literal distillation of wealth-flaunting impulses," Daniel Greenberg, co-founder of MSCHF, was quoted as saying by CNN.

"From its conception, we had mentally earmarked this work for a location like Miami Basel, a place where there is a dense concentration of people renting Lamborghinis and wearing Rolexes. These are analogous implicit gestures to the ATM Leaderboard's explicit one," he further added.

Art Basel Miami Beach, now in its 20th year in the city, is also one of the premier art fairs on the global art calendar. Beginning today at the Miami Beach Convention Center, it is slated to run until December 4 and will comprise exhibits, talks and forums, fashion installations and more. Art Basel also occurs in Hong Kong and Paris, though not concurrently.

Dubai Design Week: immersive installations and a sustainable future

In recent years, fashion and couture brands have begun to participate in the fair, blurring the lines between art and fashion.

The 18th edition of Design Miami is also taking place in collaboration with Art Basel and will feature developments in the design world through presentations, talks and more.

This year, a selection of top luxury brands will exhibit at the fair and at Design Miami:

Louis Vuitton:

The brand will exhibit select works by a curated ensemble of the world’s most-renowned artists as part of Art Basel Miami Beach. Major collaborations that will be featured include two wax figures of Yayoi Kusama, created by the artist herself; a panda figure sculpture by Takashi Murakami on a vintage Louis Vuitton trunk and paintings by Richard Prince and Alex Katz.

Bottega Veneta:

For its very first partnership, the brand will present an installation by Gaetano Pesce who also designed Bottega Veneta’s Summer 2023 show space in Milan, which included a sculptural resin floor and 400 resin chairs.

Fendi:

Fendi Casa will host the grand opening of its very first flagship home store in the US in the heart of the Miami Design District along with an exhibition within Design Miami.

Giorgio Armani:

The brand will unveil a project titled 'LOVE' at Art Basel Miami. The project fuses art, fashion, and technology to create a multi-dimensional conversation reflecting love.

Dolce and Gabbana:

Dolce & Gabbana is all set to unveil the 'Alta Gioielleria' collections, showcasing Italian artistic treasures and crafts that come to life through one-of-a-kind jewelry creations.

Dubai Design Week: eclectic crowd, cutting edge designs do not disappoint

Read Comments