Bank Job

The art avengers…took on toxic debt culture – and won the Guardian

These artists want to blow up the whole financial system The New York Times

Meet the Bonnie and Clyde of bad debt!

When art meets finance, ‘The Big Bang’ takes on a whole new meaning. This is brilliant performative protest. Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics

Bank Job is a white-knuckle ride into the dark heart of the global financial system. Artist and filmmaker duo Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn discover that behind the opaque language of loans and the defunct diagrams of money and debt is a system flawed by design and ripe for hacking. They assemble a team and bring a community together by printing their own money in a disused bank in East London, in order to buy up and abolish local debt. Part daring tale, part personal memoir and part economic education, this book is perfect for fans of Grace Blakely and David Graeber. Bank Job shows how the financial system can be changed to meet the needs of the many, not just the few one bank job at a time.

Author Biography

Hilary Powell’s work ranges from audio-visual epics, supported by Acme and Henry Moore Foundation, to print works collected by V&A and MoMA. She has a track record of involving diverse communities in making – from public participation in the production of a pop-up book of the Lower Lea Valley to large-scale print collaborations with demolition workers and material scientists as ‘alchemist in residence’ at UCL Chemistry. 

Dan Edelstyn is an experienced film director and producer with multiple commissions for Channel 4. His first film How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire was critically acclaimed and opened at BFI London Film Festival before being released across the UK and US.

As a duo, their fearless and curious work comes together in Optimistic Foundation CIC, a platform investigating and tackling urgent economic, philosophical and social issues of our time through anarchic, joyful cultural production. They believe in the subversive, radical imagination’s ability to open up possibilities of more just ways of organising and living when everyday life and democracy are corroding.