This free workshop will focus on investigating and presenting artistically the issues of the so called “Junk Bonds” related to the “International Debt Market” which is one of the main fields of Hedge Funds. The workshop will analyze complex systems of financial, legal and political structures that determine economic conditions across the world. In a time of fast-paced growth of the finance industry and expansion of neoliberalism, truth might be often hidden in complexity and in fields that are hard to understand and decode.

What do Greece, Cyprus, Argentina and Puerto Rico have in common? What drives privatization of public services? What lies behind the growing economic inequality globally and domestically? How does financial volatility drive profit and misery and ultimately how does that impact the environment?The workshop will provide basic financial literacy about the instruments, players and institutions to facilitate investigations of financial speculation, crises and the alternatives.

Paolo Cirio works with information systems to impact the dynamics of social systems. Cirio’s artworks investigate fields such as privacy, copyright, finance, and law affected by communication networks. He shows his conceptual works through prints, installations, videos, online performances, and interventions in public spaces. He has won a number of awards, including Golden Nica at Ars Electronica, Transmediale Prize, and the Eyebeam fellowship, among others.