Offshoring and Other Magic Tricks of Global Finance : An Interview with RYBN

At the 8th edition of the MoneyLab conference, hosted by Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Nika Mahnič interviewed RYBN about their work as a part of the Tax havens: Normalized Grand Theft panel. RYBN is an artist collective formed in 1999 that has, over the past years, researched the economy and the global financial system in their contemporary manifestations, thus offering a privileged vantage point from which one can view the transformations brought about by cybernetics. In this interview, they delve into their background, their achievements in databasing, the golden passport phenomenon and why offshoring was and remains a powerful tool of colonial and illiberal dispositions. They often use their art projects to shine some light on the dark side of global finance and show how the neo-illiberal class is successfully working at normalizing and legitimizing it.