day after debt — Ahmet Öğüt

day after debt

2014 - onwards
A long-term counter-finance strategy initiated by Ahmet Öğüt
In collaboration with Debt Collective/Strike Debt/Rolling Jubilee
Commissioned by the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University and Mari Spirito, Protocinema

Martha Rosler, Coin Vortex for Student Debt, 2014. Courtesy the artist, photo courtesy Aaron Word.

Day After Debt (US) in collaboration with Strike Debt's Rolling Jubilee

Works by
Natascha Sadr Haghighian
Dan Perjovschi
Martha Rosler
Superflex
Krzysztof Wodiczko
Ahmet Öğüt

November 23 , 2014 / April 12, 2015
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University and Protocinema.

Day After Debt (UK) in collaboration with Jubilee Debt Campaign.

Works by
Liam Gillick
Susan Hiller
Goshka Macuga

co-commissioned by Create and Lafayette Anticipation â€“ Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris within the framework of for British Art Show 8 curated by Anna Colin and Lydia Yee.

Troubled by the rampant debt culture that has developed around higher education in the United States, Kurdish artist Ahmet Öğüt has enlisted leading contemporary artists to produce imaginative responses to this crisis and the pressures it places upon graduates. Presented jointly by the Broad MSU and the Istanbul-based art organization Protocinema, Day After Debt comprises a series of sculptures designed and produced by Ahmet Öğüt, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Dan Perjovschi, Martha Rosler, Superflex, and Krzysztof Wodiczko. Located in interstitial spaces throughout the museum, these sculptures function as collection points for public contributions to The Debt Collective, a student-debt canceling initiative launched by Strike Debt's Rolling Jubilee. In addition to alleviating debt, this collective creates a platform that aims to offer those struggling to repay student loans more possibilities for organization, advocacy, and resistance.

Öğüt's coin operated "Anti-Debt Monolith" is a steel minimal work referencing the fictional advanced artifacts of non-human origin built by an unseen extraterrestrial species that appear in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968). The work responds to coin donations with an audio recording of the growth of student debt in the past 10 years. Other works in the exhibition include Haghighian's collection box composed of shredded U.S. currency and Perjovschi's "Bag It!," a transparent plastic bag accompanied by a humorous hierarchy of donation levels.

Superflex makes use of an upside down graduation cap as an "honor system" money collector, while Rosler's participation is comprised of text and graphics applied to a coin vortex wishing well. Wodiczko presents "Debtor Staff," a new version of his equipment for strangers and the estranged that is an evolution of its predecessor, the "Alien Staff" (1992). Taking advantage of new mini-projector technology, "Debtor Staff" facilitates the recording and display of the public's accounts of individual and collective debt.

Day After Debt is organized by the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University and is curated by Mari Spirito, Founding Director of Protocinema.

Support for this exhibition is provided by SAHA, Istanbul; Haro Cumbusyan; Bilge Ahmet Öğüt; Marty and Rebecca Eisenberg; and the Broad MSU's general exhibitions fund.

As part of the project, in collaboration with art lawyer, Sergio Munoz Sarmiento, Öğüt developed a Letter of Agreement between the artists and potential future owners to raise funds for the Debt Collective.

donwload the agreement here:

Agreement of Transfer of Work of Art

This Agreement form has been drafted by Sergio Munoz Sarmiento, a New York-based Art Lawyer, in discussion with Ahmet Öğüt, an artist and initiator of Day After Debt. This Agreement is expected to be used by any artist for the transfer and sale of a work of art that is specifically designed as a fundraising machine and sold to raise funds for Strike Debt to buy back Student Loans.

Strike Debt/Rolling Jubilee/Debt Collective
The goal of the Debt Collective is to create a platform by debtors and for debtors for organization, advocacy, and resistance. Organizing collectively offers many possibilities for building power against creditors. On Sept. 17, 2014, The Debt Collective was launched by The Rolling Jubilee, creating a platform for organization, advocacy and resistance by debtors. www.debtcollective.org

Special thanks to Michael Rush, Pelin Tan, Koray Duman, Suat Öğüt and Laura Hanna and Christopher Casuccio from Strike Debt.

Dan Perjovschi, Bag It!, 2014, photo courtesy Ahmet Öğüt.

Ahmet Öğüt, Anti-Debt Monolith, 2014. Courtesy the artist, photo courtesy Aaron Word.

Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Donation Tower ( shredded U.S. currency; former value $10,000), 2014. Courtesy the artist, photo courtesy Ahmet Öğüt.

Superflex, Academic Square Cap upside down, 2014. Courtesy the artist, photo courtesy Aaron Word.

http://broadmuseum.msu.edu/exhibitions/day-after-debt

Goshka Macuga, In Debt View, 2015. Part of Day After Debt (UK), 2015 , Co-commissioned by Create and Lafayette Anticipation - Fonds de dotation

co-commissioned by Create and Lafayette Anticipation â€“ Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris within the framework of for British Art Show 8 curated by Anna Colin and Lydia Yee.

a long-term collaborative project that tackles student debt. For the UK version of the project, artists Liam Gillick, Susan Hiller and Goshka Macuga have been commissioned by Ögüt to design sculptures that function as collection points for public contributions to student loan debt relief. The three bespoke money boxes will be installed in civic spaces around the four cities of the British Art Show, generating income which will be redistributed by the Jubilee Debt Campaign.

Susan Hiller, Thanks for Listening, 2015. Part of Day After Debt (UK), 2015, Co-commissioned by Create and Lafayette Anticipation - Fonds de dotation

Liam Gillick, Lazzarato on Debt, 2015. Part of Day After Debt (UK), 2015 Courtesy the artist and Maureen Paley, London