Monte di Pietà
Fondazione Prada
Ca’ Corner della Regina, Venice

///

a diamond is forever.

total liquidation!!
on the mezzanine
ground floor
outside
pawnshop

Venice, April 19, 2024
Ladies and gentlemen, Venetian merchants, future Queen of Cyprus, Historical Archive, dear passengers,
please pay attention.
The auction is about to begin.
Silence.
We will now present the auction catalogue:

object
object
object
object
objectification
objectively
objectivity

public debt
obsession
incurring debt
i deeply regret it
i’m looking for a job
i want money
i want a job
i had to do it
repaying debts
bankruptcy
balanced budget
good intentions
unpaid internship
being alive
writing the will
speaking
parliament
inquiry

Sharks, loan agents, and mutual fund managers
What do you think about borrowing money?
What do you think about murder?
What do you think about death?

Documents tied to credit and finance, financiers, I ask you: how is wealth created starting from a concept—real or artificial wealth? A physical dimension, or a market dimension? Which economic market?

usurer
social order
beauty
destruction
slavery
proving not to need it
taking care of the most important things
the youth
what they will inherit
lending to a friend
losing a friend
the thread of the economy
the value of money
the value of the object
the value of art
the value of friendship
value
desire

Lot number 1: The Suitcase of Memory Diamonds
We begin with an iconic piece: a suitcase containing lab-created diamonds from the artwork The Diamond Maker (2020-). These diamonds are not mere jewels; they embody the destruction and rebirth of everything the artist has ever created in their career, including works never brought to life.

flying
media consumption
mediterranean diet
working dinner
media nutritionists
media confusion
ca’ corner della regina

The inquiry has begun
The abyss is open.

Born in Italy during the 15th century, the Catholic institutions known as Monti di Pietà allowed the less affluent to access low-interest loans. They used charitable donors' funds as capital and provided loans to people with modest incomes. Debtors offered valuable objects as collateral, making the Monte di Pietà an institution positioned between a pawnshop and a bank.

venice
biennale
art
arthritis
pietà
mount of piety
1834
pawnshop
1724
1728
historical archive
fondazione prada

Lot number 2: Archives of Debt – Original Documents from the Monte di Pietà
A collection of historical records and items from the past that tell the stories of those who, centuries ago, exchanged their possessions for a brief respite from financial hardship. The set includes original ledgers and seized belongings, now elevated as artifacts of extraordinary symbolic value.

immersive
shallow
pawnbroker’s counter
failure
dead phone battery
bankruptcies
debt
diamond suitcase
original

The atmosphere is charged with anticipation as illustrious buyers from around the globe gather to claim fragments of history and symbols of contemporary genius. Let the game of value and rarity begin!

copy
workshop
forgery
credit
finance
cooperation
abandonment
property
precarious
collection
overabundance
boundary
water
canal

everything must go
show must go on

total liquidation
we buy gold
pawnshop whispers
house of diamonds
diamonds
silver
brilliance
watches
no dogs allowed

In 1822, the Cassa di Venezia, a local bank open to the public, was established. Associated with the Banco Pignoratizio, it was able to finance pawn-based lending operations through savings collection.

bricks
palace
object scale
mount of piety
extras
irony
judgment
one-of-a-kind pieces
license plate
car
police
carabinieri
car door
accident
police!!!

Debt, virtual currency, and the emergence of money are deeply interwoven in Western history with the exercise of power that fosters growth and accumulation.

fine
fire
destination
road
highway
pile-up
land registry
stacking
dust
bulimia
abandonment
sadness
mercy
pity
reassurance

Debt, as outlined, intricately weaves itself into the societal, political, and cultural layers of human existence, functioning beyond economics as a power dynamic and a story of identity. From a philosophical perspective, debt reflects a struggle between personal identity and collective obligation, between owing and being.

computer
hanging underwear
dirty underwear
email
press release
bicycle
childhood
mother
air conditioner
conditioning
fan
cinema
acting
pretending
crying
believing
amen!!
notice
savings bank
neon lights
display cases
plastic
screens
control
hacking
wheelchair
disabled
disability
screen
screen
screen
table
food
feast
rotten

Lot number 3: Golden Seaweed of Ca’ Corner
Last but not least, a set of seaweed crafted using traditional Venetian gilding techniques. Scattered throughout the halls of Monte di Pietà, these pieces symbolize the wealth drawn from the sea and memory. A delicate connection between nature, artifice, and luxury.

insects
putrid
disgusting
delicious
lobster
wine
candle
fire
pizza boxes
netflix e chill
child’s drawings
prison
psychiatric hospital
bedsheet
loneliness
confinement
slavery
microchip
lights
rotation
system
preserving
gaming
video game
sofa
chair
Gameboy

Debt, in its essence, is a promise: a deferred obligation that binds the giver and the receiver. This relationship is never neutral but encodes hierarchies and dependencies.

floppy disk
fresco
sofa
bed
sex
teamwork
divorcing
instagram
networking
work
money
debt
cinema
film
cinematography
cigarette
drugs
bathroom
addiction
alcohol

However, debt is not merely a financial mechanism: it is a cultural construct that legitimizes forms of exploitation and control.

mirroring oneself
face
wrinkles of old age
nudity
saggy butt
private room
red!!
red!!
sex!!
prostitution
payment
upholstery
wallpaper
carpet
bar
cappuccino
sponge
detergent
deodorant
degreaser
grease stain
cleaning lady
gambling
trailer
betting
indoor plant
sleeping on the floor!!
flea market
rifles
weapons

Debt is also a double-edged sword: moments of debt crisis—from biblical jubilees to modern cancellations—demonstrate that debt can destabilize, forcing a radical rethinking of social relations and the political contract. Debt is not limited to money. We live as “debtors”: we work to repay mortgages, loans, and social expectations. Cryptocurrencies, for instance, embody a paradoxical immateriality of value, yet they rely on physical networks of computation and symbolic processes of trust. In this sense, debt becomes a form of contemporary alchemy: it transforms labor, goods, and trust into abstract entities that can be accumulated, exchanged, and sometimes burned to create new value.

we pay immediately in cash!!
we pay immediately!!
we promise that!!
disengagement payments
renewal payments
motorcycle
gasoline
body weight
diet
mediterranean diet
media diet
medial diet
bitcoin
seizure of valuables
diamonds
pearl necklaces
women of means
women of high rank
noble families
commercial liquidation!!
side eye
precious collection!!
insignificant
useless

If debt is a constraint, could it also be reimagined as an ethical tool of connection?

smelly
old
ignorant
dear customers, please note!!
closed until further notice
offer
unmissable offer!!
promotions on all products!!
discount
stalling
persuading
everything must go
total liquidation!!
vendesi!!
la bella vita!!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
35, 67, 139, 2,450!!
stratification
accumulation
interpretation
anyway, always, too much
assigned!
assigned to the highest bidder!
debt
need
redemption

money, money, money
must be funny
in the rich man's world
money, money, money
always sunny
in the rich man's world
aha

overload
oppressive
disinhibition
distribution of power
finding one’s own path
searching for a work
attempt
guilt
religion
christianity
leaving
traveling
personal journey
disillusionment
object
fetish
video ad spot
teamwork
gambling
destruction of the body
destruction of the corpus
distribution of goods

An art exhibition, what is it? It’s an alternative reality that ultimately surpasses and completely uproots the common reality that the visitor is compelled to leave behind at the ticket office, along with their belongings.

bread
oil
baccalà mantecato
news
headline
newspaper
depending
addiction
culture
material and visual
imaginary
politics
donald trump
michelangelo’s pietà
child’s drawing
christmas gift
digital currencies
AI
ways of living
disengagement
immateriality
volatility
financial transactions
digital sphere
alchemical
token
money
tik tok
toc toc?
who is?
queen of cash

Lot number 4: Package of 100 tokens
Not a tangible object, but an opportunity. Each token represents the volatility and immateriality of contemporary wealth, promoted by Venetian influencer Regina de Schei. Proceeds will support the residents of Venice. Invest in a digital future, rooted in the history of the Serenissima!

low-interest loans
charitable donors
capital
income
modesty
wealth
foresight
humility
attempts
selling price
pledge
gift
kind concession
1806
2024
2000
millennium bug
utopia distopica
surveillance capitalism
information society
technology has not necessarily
collective well-being
municipal pawnshop
savings collection
the west
globalization
power management
government
action
financial act

Who will offer more?
Wait, we have a phone bid.
Another.
List.
List.
List.
legal recognition
museum institution
critique
intellectual property
individual property
preserve heritage
assign value
write an email
sleep on the floor
symbolic value
economic value
human value
exhibit copy
trajan’s plinths
venus of cyrene
records of the mount of piety
black-and-white print on silver salts
giulio paolini
digital zones of immaterial pictorial sensibility
blockchain token
family tree
oil on canvas
mini dv transferred to digital video
breakdown
digital file
michael landy
inventory file processed in word and saved on floppy disk
inventory
handwritten inventory draft
transparent bag
shredded image
granular and partially crushed material
private collection
courtesy of the artist

Yet another illusion? Another attempt to protect something we deem vital, while everything around us collapses, is destroyed, mutilated.

orchestre lirique de l'ortf gianfranco masini
digital audio
original audio
video mix of four episodes of the series
santiago sierra
tattoos
projection
video art?
monitor
tv
63’
chris burden
tv commercials
1977
sample of animal and plant fibers
hardcover book
women's leopard fur collar, silk-lined, 1930s
embroidered women's shoes
european heel
women's red leather sandals
twenty decks of cards
andy warhol
glass jar
metal lid
coins
“money or white scooped” coin
bronze medal
coronation
queen
coat of arms of the city of benghazi during italian colonial occupation
wood painting
frame
2 metal coins
zero cents
cildo meireles
zero dollars
20 commemorative medals from the italo-turkish war
cast bronze
venetian school
box containing a medal
color photograph
private collection
the diamond maker, 2020
seashell
zoomorphic weights for gold
gold dust holder
ivory coast
africa
war
ghana
copper
iron
knife-shaped coin
bronze
sword
china
bamboo
bone
ivory
50 banknotes
polychrome porcelain
skin
leather
bank of italy
duck-shaped weights
necklace
copper alloy
steel blade, ivory handle
cusco teeth
western new guinea
throwing knife
quartz disc
glass
laos
togo
sierra leone
tobacco bars
solomon islands
pressed tobacco
spear tips
millefiori beads
anklet ornament
dragon-shaped weights
hot press
crucifixion of jesus christ

Lot number 5: The Lack Table – An Icon of Accessible Minimalism
This piece, drawn from Ikea’s renowned catalog, has passed through living rooms, studio apartments, and stories reflecting a society teetering between practicality and alienation. Bearing an aesthetic both familiar and unsettling, the Lack table here assumes the status of a totem of precarious modernity.

polychrome terracotta
symbolic figures
promised bride
love debt
harlequin
amsterdam
pierro manzoni
artist’s shit
shit
shit shit shit!!
good luck!!
excrement
fiancé
wood
tik tok
tin box
tin box
parchment
autograph
time capsule 1
tabula de la salute
marcel duchamp
18th-century martian binding
performance documentation
residues
fragments
ex libris
bronze seal
roman-imperial period
italy (??)
provenance
discovery location: naples
gray clay
bust of a man
glass cup

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets!
100 copies!!
Only!!

purchased by the french state
cobalt blue, emerald, green, and violet
unguentarium
giacomo balla
failure!!
draft
anonymous donors!!
crown
dispensation of grace!!
dispensation of human government
richard serra
100/100% ordre de bourse
marcel broodthaers
majolica bottle
unknown atelier
resurrection
amen!
amen!
amen!
plate with warrior
war
couple
marriage
poverty
st. nicholas of bari
st. bernardino of siena
life stories
christ in pietà
all saints
amen
repossession
monument
monumental

Lot number 6: Crutches and Prosthetics – The Relics of Fragility
A collection of crutches and prosthetics, objects that support not only bodies but entire narratives of resilience, violence, and survival. Their shadows stretch out like a warning, reminding us of the complicities we bear.

exhibition copy
obelisk
video
door
entrance
mezzanine
first floor
sheets of paper
watching oneself
losing oneself
natives
ceremony
inauguration
gelatin
new york times
fake news
independent state
deed of sale
latin america
emancipation receipt
written note
loan document
slave handcuffs
slave chains
padlock
10 keys
unknown artist
translation
typescript
postage
auction
auction
degeneration
stacking
cadastral register
fire
who offers more?
who offers less?
joseph beuys

Lot number 7: The Body of Time – Old Sheets and Dirty Towels
A set of worn, stained, and now useless fabrics. These objects speak to us of bodies, habits, and the shared struggle against time. Silent witnesses to lives consumed in the everyday.

blackboard
writing
understanding
incommunicability
politeness
kindness
courtesy of the art gallery
courtesy of the artist
summer
intesa sanpaolo
fifty ancient novellas
beautiful in invention and style
the clothes of venetians
from almost every era
carefully collected and painted
in the 18th century
original certificate
treasure of the united states of america
disney characters
second world war
arithmetic
mathematics
science
science fiction
yves klein
patent of invention
"zone de sensibilité picturale immatérielle"
treasure of treasures
tax certificate
treasurer's office
signature
counter-signature
loan office
roulette
bet
security
intimacy
sewer
accounting series
suitcase
airport
abandonment
loss
damnation
coat of arms
battle
colonial occupation
rosetta stone
cuneiform tablet
paleo-babylonian age
poetry
poem
cardboard box
daniel spoerri
tickets
money
debt
slaves

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets. Debt, art, and value find a new balance in your hands today. Who will be the next guardian of this transformed wealth?

Place your bets and prepare to take home fragments of our time, for better or for worse.
Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets.

Christoph Büchel
mastodontic solo exhibition
april
november
2024

Fondazione Prada
Venice
debt

money, money, money
must be funny
in the rich man's world
money, money, money
always sunny
in the rich man's world
aha