Bargeld ist die neue Liebe
(Cash is the new Love)

an investigative performance
by Seth Kim-Cohen

Seth Kim-Cohen takes us on a joy ride (minus the joy) through the physical and financial violence of late-stage capitalism. Careening like a tech stock IPO from krautrock to investment banking to Marxist terror, this investigative performance is comprised of video, music, slapstick comedy, and a disquisition on the debasement of democratic ideals in the age of finance capital.

Historical Background
Multiple lines of history – past, present, and future – converged when a mass of copper was propelled at more than 2 km per second through the armor-plated door of Alfred Herrhausen’s Mercedes in 1989. At the time of his murder, Herrhausen was Chairman of Deutsche Bank and had led the institution’s expansion from a regional lender to a major player in global finance. The assassination is thought to have been carried out by the Baader-Meinhof gang, left wing radicals responsible for bombings, kidnappings, and killings over a three decade span, starting in 1968. Uwe Nettelbeck, was an early champion of the Baader-Meinhof gang, publishing an article about the trial of Andreas Baader in Die Zeit, and subsequently serving as editor of the underground magazine Konkret, which served as the revolutionary mouthpiece for Ulrike Meinhof. Nettelbeck went on to form and produce the band Faust, part of the generation of German bands which would create the genre known as “krautrock.”
Meanwhile, Alfred Herrhausen’s vision for Deutsche Bank survived his murder. In the 1990s Deutsche Bank made increasingly aggressive incursions into the New York investment banking market. One of their high profile clients was a real estate developer who had burned his bridges with every lender in the city. With Donald Trump unable to secure a loan from any other financial institution, Deutsche Bank saw an opportunity and a late-night, late-capitalist swipe-right marriage of convenience was born. Had it not been for Herrhausen’s vision for Deutsche Bank, Trump may have forever remained a mid-level bit player in New York real estate.