An itinerant participatory art project by Alicja Rogalska. It includes a growing archive of designs for Monument to The Victims of Capitalism proposed by the general public during performances in public spaces and submitted online.
This website presents a selection of drawings and descriptions from the archive, along with animated architectural renderings inspired by selected designs and texts contextualising the various editions of the project.
The project is speculative in its nature – it anticipates the end of the current economic and political regime and encourages exercise in imagination from the perspective of a post-capitalist future.
The second iteration of the project took place in the framework of Warsaw Under Construction Festival – an annual urban design festival organised by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Three decades after the fall of communism and the transformation of the Polish economic system into neoliberal capitalism, the general public were invited to propose their designs for Monument to The Victims of Capitalism and donate coins as part of a public space action and a group exhibition.
Monumentomania, Warsaw Under Construction Festival, ZODIAK Pavilion of Architecture, Warsaw, Poland
5 October – 3 November 2019
Curated by Szymon Maliborski and Łukasz Zaremba
Facilitators: Franciszek Dziduch, Zofia Majchrzak, Stanisław Naklicki
Animations: Agnieszka Kołacińska
The following ideas were submitted by members of the public in Warsaw, Poland, 13 September 2019 - 3 November 2019
Greeting, Masha from...(Russian written down phonetically)
This is beautiful| Blood.
People shouldn't vote for PiS because they are pests.
Capitalist| small people under his weight| 1 PLN
Monument to Jola Brzeska (Ps. Jola Brzeska- a social activist, defending evicted tenants, murdered in 2011)
Money| power| no studying| internet
Monument to social inequality, because that`s what capitalism is.
Idea: a figurative depiction of burning Kim Kardashian (like the meme).
This is scales btw.
0 likes. Monument to a victim of capitalism.
You buy= you throw away.
Pyramid. House of credit cards.
Loser (word play with ZL = PL and zlamany, sth like broke/n or broke/r)
To view the whole monument send a text to 7320.
I'm dedicating this work to Ania Witko. I <3 u Ania.
To the victims of capitalism. Market square in Krakow.
Monument to waste and crazy consumption. Why? Pointless death in hard conditions. To memory of animals farmed for meat , which is then thrown away.
Super hero
BAD (ZL-PLN =Polish currency, ZLY= bad)
The wall. Positive disintegration.
People sitting with their backs to the viewer. They don't give a fuck. The screen is showing a child's drawing. This was drawn by my sister, 8 years old. I think it shows well that we live in times full of violence, which is accessible at our fingertips.
Crying faces| A broken coin| Audience| Hunched victims
This is the only thing I see. (PS. This is a rough draft of Poland, referring to economic differences between the eastern and the western part of the country.)
This is very tasty.
My best,
A coin which makes no sense (of gold). And this is a man, who makes no sense either but he is the king of dollars (also of gold). And this is a skate board. This monument will be standing there instead of Palace and Culture (PS. a socrealistic sky scraper in Warsaw) and its height will be 1.4 cm.
Just for 5 minutes.
plinth (the word upside-down)
Monument of the victims of capitalism. A metal spring with an arrowhead at the end. | side view| front view| a fountain, flowing down the string.| Made of what? water, steel | Illuminated at night, pop music from loudspeakers. | Where? Every month, somewhere else, in some important and busy location. | Corporations' logos inside of the spring (distorted?)| Why? Spring - rush, profit, stock exchange; water-glamour, spending money (PR?) |
The biblical golden calf...and God already gave money (google image cause I can't draw right now)
Down with communism (PS a typical protest slogan)
I'm not feeling a victim.
Entrance to catacumbs. Railing. 1. face covered eyes 2. face laced up mouth 3. face hand chained. This monument is to be touched. After... years- buried.
A person submerged in coins and banknotes.
7 pm, Monday, Tuesday..."Mum, when will daddy be back home?"
There are new marker pens under the Christmas tree.
2% of Polish people have banknote in their hands. I don't know why, but I have an idea.
This is a mirror. Have a look at yourself. It can be displayed in a shopping mall, in Mordor.
(PS Mordor- a pejorative nickname of a business park in Domaniecka Street.), at a metro station...generally everywhere.
Back to nature. Capitalism likes to hide.
2050. Is there anything going to be after then?
A pig money box on a gallows.
Only 9.99
Monument to transport-related socially excluded (no more operating connections, high prices). A monument to be erected in Mordor (PS. Mordor- a pejorative nickname of a business park i Domaniecka Street.) or a monument to a reprivatised tenement house.
A roll of dollars.
A human.
Cool to contest capitalism in a fancy cafe with an Iphone in your hand, isn't it? Funny and hypocritical.
This buddy is reaching his hand towards the bag and not ''heiling'' (PS. Heil-the Nazo greeting sign), this is good, very good.
Unfortunately I don't have means for such a monument. Call me to contribute.
Transformation of buildings from People's Republic Poland into contemporary skyscrapers.
Just a cube.
Names of the victims.
Money, jojo or death.
Advertisment.
= a man. Oh no. Men are also victims of the system. Feminism = equality.
Melted coins| Recycled materials| Made of recycled old pipes painted yellow.
A machine resembling a parking meter. When you enter coins, it counts down (as per price per time unit), and then throws the coins back out. Coin ejector. Slot to insert coins.
Instruction. Loudspeaker.
Invisible victims of the invisible hand of the market.
The invisible hand of capitalism in white gloves.
A capitalist| ''I died'' | poor people | money
Xanax 1 kg. It will all be fine, kisses my dears.
Flushed (broke).
There are none*.
*Victims of communism are another story.
A central square.
Funeral. The body is in the carboard box.
A forest of naked trees, made of concrete. The symbol of nature and environment as word elements being destroyed by capitalism.
Could I owe you a sent?
Money, power, no studying, internet.
Money box. Savings. Monument to a monument. To collect the savings break the money box.
Quick loan for child allowance.
I went back to this exhibition to view this work two weeks later. On a daily basis, I see other teenagers and children being lured into Internet capitalism, which boils down to the enslavement of the need to buy and own MORE.
GO TO A PARK AND NOT TO A SHOPPING MALL. STOP LIFE DESTROYING CELLS.
(on the monument) Face buy, insta buy, buy!
Afreeca (word play)
A knocked over scooter.
Monument to capitalism.
A camel vs a needle's eye.
A dog smelling money.
Warsaw| 1 grosz (1/100 of PLN)
victim of c. | opening| pre-victim of capitalism| palisade a'la Vlad Impaler| underground
Monument to a victim of capitalism.
Botox| plastic| surgical steel| granite with gold elements| marble| should shine according to the principle ''golden but modest''
Animals are victims of capitalism.
A credit/debit card has 16 digits. This one has only 15.
Spolam (''together''- a chain of state supermarkets in communist Poland). Closed.
Jolek (Polish male name) | monument| war
This is a monument to capitalism. It is created by (can also be translated as ''made of'') Jan Kowalski (John Doe).
I will not draw, because under capitalism art was withdrawn from my school and I cannot draw | ovation.
A man's struggle for money builds the capitalism| monumentomania | capitalism.
A man half way through, but already homeless.
Buy, sale, bargain, sale , only (puke).
A monument? To the victims of capitalism?
A figure blended into the pavement, made of coins from a piggy bank (not melted so as to show that they are coins).
hollow brick
Ship (written with an ortographic mistake)
If a body of mass m is to pass through without breaking away, the gravitational force must be equal to the centrifugal force of inertia.