Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge

Follow the Money. Of Analogue Values, Digital Currencies and the Quantification of the World
16 SEPT 2023
Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt/Main

Licence #12

A project by Mobile Academy Berlin
In cooperation with Zentrum verantwortungsbewusste Digitalisierung (zewedi)

Curated by Florian Malzacher


A classic of performative knowledge appropriation: 90 experts pick up the scent of money at scales small, big, and personal, showing how cryptocurrencies challenge banks and states, and close the gaps of the salable. The “Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge” is a place for exchanging knowledge, an archive and a reading room, a stock exchange and a counselling service all at the same time.

Book a 1:1 conversation for €1 or listen to the talks via the 8 channels of the Market Radio!

Money generates, transforms, destroys ties between people and people, people and things, things and things. This has (almost) always been the case. Acceleration is increasing, the market ticks in real time and trades with the future: nowhere is the digitalisation of the world more striking than in the economic sphere. Cryptocurrencies are replacing bank accounts; alternative payment systems are challenging the power of states, which in turn are trying to counter the competition from global technology and platform corporations.

The total virtualisation of reality promises its equally total commodification. Everything – real and virtual objects, memories, feelings, care – becomes a potential carrier of value, a possible object of speculation, a token.

Money is a relational tool. It creates relationships: of debt and guilt, of dependencies, of prosperity and poverty. It irrationally rationalises the world. It is used to compare the value of things, activities, relationships, but also of people. Money is the face of capital, fetish, metaphor and machine, threatening and desirable.

In an arena running on the rhythm of administrative time, 90 experts from the fields of art, activism, theory and myriad of everyday careers will present their expertise: What actually is this strange medium of money that has been argued about for at least two and a half millennia? The Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge traces the developments of money, looks at what it makes possible and what it does by adopting the refrain of investigative journalists and marriage swindlers: Follow the money!

Article Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (in German)

Experts: Antigone Akgün, André Alfes, Katrin Assenmacher, Timothy Attanucci, Andrea Baldan, Frank Berger, Bastian Bergerhoff, Barbara Brandl, Karlheinz Braun, Till Breyer, Golde Carlsson, Il-Jin Atem Choi, Tsafrir Cohen, Caroline Creutzburg, Radha D‘Souza, Minh Dao, Clémentine Deliss, Jutta Ditfurth, Nicole Fischer, Carlos Franke, Petra Gehring, Claus George, Jürgen Geuter, Jan Greitens, Achim Greser, Lisa Yashodhara Haller, Pit Hartling, Michael Hartmann, Ina Hartwig, Rolf Haubl, Bernadette La Hengst, Mikael GB Horstmann, Hannah Hurtzig, Moritz Hütten, Bijan Kaffenberger, Alexander Karschnia, Alexandra Keiner, Fleur Kemmers, Radwa Khaled-Ibrahim, Tobias Klein, Christian Kremser, Bojana Kunst, Mahret Ifeoma Kupka, Agnieszka Kurant, Laura Laabs, Nikolas Lelle, Marlon Lieber, Lina Lindheimer, Julia Mantel, Katja Maurer, Fabrice Mazliah, Nana Melling, Daniel Mertens, Guadalupe Moreno, Gerald Nestler, Aleksandra Peeva, Michael Quast, Jana Ringwald, Jochen Schmith, Martin Schmitt, Inken Schönauer, Dag Schulze, Brett Scott, Shantel, Roland Siegwald, Sebastian Siepen, Robin Sommer, Peter Stamer, Marcus Steinweg, Igor Štromajer, Nathan Taylor, Joana Tischkau, Julia Uherek, Jeanne Charlotte Vogt, Klaus Walter, Carola Westermeier, Janosch Witte, Sonja Yakovleva et al.

Licence: Hannah Hurtzig / Curator: Florian Malzacher / Dramaturge: Philipp Scholtysik / Project Manager: Ulrike Veudel

A Mobile Akademie Berlin project, produced by Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm in cooperation
with ZEVEDI (Centre Responsible Digitality). A project in the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. ZEVEDI is supported by the Hessian Minister for Digital Strategy and Innovation.

Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge Frankfurt
Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew
Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Check-in (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Check-in (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Check-in (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)
Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Complaints Counter (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Complaints Counter (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)

Follow the Money: Arena (Photo: Yoav Kedem / Nói Crew)