In-Bank Vacation
Contemporary activisms in their different versions, in physical and digital spaces, expose the intertwined relationship between performance and politics. In current sociopolitical scenarios, theatricality and simulation are not only oppositional tactics but they also play a key role in the display of dominant power. Within what Guy Debord termed "the society of the spectacle" (Debord 1967), one of the biggest challenges faced by oppositional groups is how to create radical gestures that engage the complex networks of contemporary power formations. To this end, feeding on each other, the "live" collective body and its electronic double unfold their multiple tactics within a variety of platforms: the street, mass media, the Internet, and, as we will see here, banks.
Consider, for example, the case of the Wakstein family in Argentina, who staged a performance in which they pretended to "take a vacation" in one of the HSBC bank branches in Buenos Aires. The action, a protest against the freezing of bank accounts by the government in December of 2001, was announced by the family to journalists as an "escrache," or public outing of the bank. By referencing previous modes of performance, the Wakstein family connects their vacation action to a lineage of Argentine political history, namely the project of neoliberalization and the hemispheric military violence that facilitated the opening of local economies to global markets.
At the end of January of 2002, the summer season in the southern hemisphere, the Waksteins arrived in the bank determined to gain full access to their savings despite the official decree that limited all banking transactions. The family spread out beach chairs and other vacation items and posed as a tableaux vivant with a placard reading:
The bank staff reacted immediately, closing the premises and evacuating patrons through the parking lot. Although the in-bank performance was carried out by a family defending their own economic interests, it was received as an accurate representation of the shared feeling of helplessness and rage of all those who were affected by the official barricading of bank accounts. Through its elaborate theatrics, the family's action transformed what appeared to be an irrefutable ruling by the Argentine administration into a media scandal that indicted the government and the banks for their interference in personal finances. In response to the official barricade on the customers' accounts, the in-bank vacation worked as a barricading itself.
By disrupting the bank's flow through their out of place performance of idleness, the Waksteins re-wrote the script of how bodies are supposed to function in that particular space. Through performance, the Waksteins conjured up a space of negotiation, generating the field of force necessary to leverage the situation, without accruing violence. The bank relied on official decrees and repressive force; the Waksteins on media attention and popular empathy by staging inappropriate behavior. Through the strategic placement of their bodies within a bank space, the Waksteins staged the "disappearance" of their own capital.
Although this action represents a notion of the political that is radically grounded in and on the potent presence of bodies, practices like this are better understood in relation to digital capital. In contemporary power formations, the dyad online/offline refers to a dialectical relationship, not to mutually exclusive ontologies. One feeds the other. As the Argentine dramatically discovered and as "Vacationing at the Bank" illustrates, there is no such thing as "offline." Adam Smith's invocation of the "invisible hand" of capital moves through digital networks, relocating money from market to market.
Consider, for example, the case of the Wakstein family in Argentina, who staged a performance in which they pretended to "take a vacation" in one of the HSBC bank branches in Buenos Aires. The action, a protest against the freezing of bank accounts by the government in December of 2001, was announced by the family to journalists as an "escrache," or public outing of the bank. By referencing previous modes of performance, the Wakstein family connects their vacation action to a lineage of Argentine political history, namely the project of neoliberalization and the hemispheric military violence that facilitated the opening of local economies to global markets.
At the end of January of 2002, the summer season in the southern hemisphere, the Waksteins arrived in the bank determined to gain full access to their savings despite the official decree that limited all banking transactions. The family spread out beach chairs and other vacation items and posed as a tableaux vivant with a placard reading:
ESTE BANCO SE QUEDO CON EL FUTURO DE MIS HIJOS. DEVUELVANSELO.Confronted with this satirical scene, the bank's patrons, who were waiting to hear news about their money, laughed and applauded. Because the Waksteins had announced their action to the main newspapers and TV channels by email, there were journalists on site and the family's performance was widely covered on the media, nationally and internationally.
[This bank stole my children's future. We want it back!]
The bank staff reacted immediately, closing the premises and evacuating patrons through the parking lot. Although the in-bank performance was carried out by a family defending their own economic interests, it was received as an accurate representation of the shared feeling of helplessness and rage of all those who were affected by the official barricading of bank accounts. Through its elaborate theatrics, the family's action transformed what appeared to be an irrefutable ruling by the Argentine administration into a media scandal that indicted the government and the banks for their interference in personal finances. In response to the official barricade on the customers' accounts, the in-bank vacation worked as a barricading itself.
By disrupting the bank's flow through their out of place performance of idleness, the Waksteins re-wrote the script of how bodies are supposed to function in that particular space. Through performance, the Waksteins conjured up a space of negotiation, generating the field of force necessary to leverage the situation, without accruing violence. The bank relied on official decrees and repressive force; the Waksteins on media attention and popular empathy by staging inappropriate behavior. Through the strategic placement of their bodies within a bank space, the Waksteins staged the "disappearance" of their own capital.
Although this action represents a notion of the political that is radically grounded in and on the potent presence of bodies, practices like this are better understood in relation to digital capital. In contemporary power formations, the dyad online/offline refers to a dialectical relationship, not to mutually exclusive ontologies. One feeds the other. As the Argentine dramatically discovered and as "Vacationing at the Bank" illustrates, there is no such thing as "offline." Adam Smith's invocation of the "invisible hand" of capital moves through digital networks, relocating money from market to market.
| Previous page on path | Tactical Media Performance, page 3 of 5 | Next page on path |
Discussion of "In-Bank Vacation"
Add your voice to this discussion.
Checking your signed in status ...