by The group’s latest work, the “ATM Leaderboard,” is a working ATM that displays the cash balances of everyone who uses it throughout the entire art fair. It sorts users by the size of their bank account – with photos taken by the ATM’s camera – like the high scores of a classic arcade game.
According to MSCHF, there is currently a person at the top of the “ATM Leaderboard” with an account balance of $2.9 million. (A video of the ATM screen taken by an attendee shows a bearded man in a pink T-shirt next to the seven-figure total; the timestamp shows him holding the number one spot since Tuesday.)
A new piece of art from Brooklyn-based collective MSCHF, “ATM Leaderboard,” asks Art Basel Miami Beach attendees to put their money where their money is. Credit: MSCHF
Artworks regularly sell for millions of dollars at Art Basel Miami Beach, where the art world gathers for a week of fairs, flashy parties and music festivals.
“The ‘ATM Leaderboard’ is a very real distillation of the impulse to show off wealth,” Daniel Greenberg, MSCHF co-founder, told CNN in an email. “From envisioning, we mentally reserved this job for a place like Miami Basel, where people who rent Lamborghini and wear a Rolex congregate heavily. These are implicit moves similar to the ATM Leaderboard overt.”
Perrotin currently hosts his first exhibition at MSCHF’s New York gallery, describing the group as “a conceptual collective whose elaborate interventions expose and exploit the absurdities of our cultural, political, and monetary systems.”
As for where the ATM might show up next, it’s up to whoever wants to buy it or borrow it, Greenberg said. The top scores will stay on the leaderboard after each show, possibly increasing the stakes for subsequent users.
“Because of the camera, the ATM keeps a constant record of every person using it, as well as every location where it is installed, so we hope it will have the opportunity to act in more areas,” Greenberg said.
If you have $3 million (or more) in cash waiting in your bank account and you want the world to know about it, you can visit the ATM at Art Basel Miami Beach until Saturday.
