Michael Mandiberg | FDIC Insured | 2008–2016 02.12.2017 – 04.02.2018 | Fotomuseum Winterthur

SITUATION #101

FDIC Insured, books with engraved trademarks, 2008–2016 © Michael Mandiberg, courtesy Denny Gallery, New York
Michael Mandiberg, FDIC Insured, 2008–2016, SITUATION #101, SITUATIONS/Post Fail, installation view at Fotomuseum Winterthur, 2017 © Philipp Ottendörfer
Michael Mandiberg, FDIC Insured, 2008–2016, SITUATION #101, SITUATIONS/Post Fail, installation view at Fotomuseum Winterthur, 2017 © Philipp Ottendörfer
Michael Mandiberg, FDIC Insured, 2008–2016, SITUATION #101, SITUATIONS/Post Fail, installation view at Fotomuseum Winterthur, 2017 © Philipp Ottendörfer

The financial crisis of 2008 marks the beginning of Michael Mandiberg’s work FDIC Insured. After he noticed that the visual identities of failed banks were deleted from the internet by the FDIC, the US deposit protection fund, Mandiberg began collecting the logos of these banks. With a laser cutter, he then engraved these trademarks on the covers of old books containing investment advice. The work meanwhile encompasses 527 logos on books with titles such as Investing by the Stars or Total Money Makeover. Through his work, Mandiberg manifests the secretive approach of the FDIC as a visual representation, giving it the concrete and tangible form of books. By preserving these failed identities, he plainly presents the moment of the collapse, before many of its protagonists disappear from collective memory.

More by Michael Mandiberg: mandiberg.com

A cooperation with the Link Art Center.

Kindly supported by Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne.