Someone is Getting Rich

Currently at Tropenmuseum is Someone is Getting Rich, and exhibition exploring the relationship between colonialism and the global financial system. Dutch financial innovations and people played an essential role in financing colonial campaigns and plantations.

Hew Locke Confederate States of America Loan 2 2018 Courtesy of Hew Locke, Hales Gallery, and P·P·O·W, New York

In Someone is Getting Rich, created by guest curator Carrie Pilto, contemporary artists visualise that colonial inventions such as tradable shares and investment funds have shaped the global financial system. Visible through photography, videography, performance, sculptures, drawings and tapestries – in a confronting or indirect way – they also reveal how the aftermath of colonialism is still embedded in the financial sector today.

Participating artists include Eline Benjaminsen, Alain Bernardini, Franck Bragigand, Claire Fontaine, DIS, Zachary Formwalt, Femke Herregraven, Jean Kawata and Ced’art Tamasala (CATPC), Gabriel Kuri, Hew Locke, Cristina Lucas, Pope.L, Pascale Monnin, Pyotr Pavlensky and Santiago Sierra.

Credit: Rick Mandoeng

Someone is Getting Rich is open at Tropenmuseum until 7th January 2024.