Panel Discussion: Finance and the Sacred

A panel bringing together artistic and academic perspectives on the systems at play between the debt regime and speculative imagination. As part of Bahar Noorizadeh’s interrelated projects – The Debtor’s Portal exhibition and her mural commission In Mortua Manu / In A Dead Hand – The Showroom will host a panel discussion bringing together artistic, academic and philosophical perspectives on the systems at play between the debt regime and speculative imagination. Acting as a live meditation of Noorizadeh’s research, the conversation will examine gamification as a mechanism of control, information as an urban medium, sacrifice as the social form of finance, and conspiracy as a mode of navigating this terrain. Convened by The Otolith Collective, the panel includes artist Bahar Noorizadeh, Adam HajYahia, Lama El Khatib, and Max Haiven. Tickets £5. We are open to all, if the price is a barrier just email us for a free ticket – [email protected]. Bios: Bahar Noorizadeh, born in 1988 in Iran, examines the relationship between art and capitalism and their entangled moral, social and organisational technologies. In her practice as an artist, theorist and filmmaker, she investigates the histories and the futures of economics, from ancient monetary systems to cybernetic socialism and neoliberal finance, and the techno-fictions underpinning geopolitical relations and logistical infrastructures. Noorizadeh is the founder and organiser of Weird Economies, a multi-authored platform dedicated to radical economic imaginaries. Her work has appeared at the Guggenheim Museum NYC (2024), Taipei Biennial (2023), Venice Architecture Biennial (2021), Transmediale Festival (2020, 2022), Tate Modern Artists’ Cinema Program (2018) and Geneva Biennale of Moving Images (2018) among others. She is the co-editor of the e-flux special issue on Iran (May 2024) and has contributed essays to n+1, e-flux Architecture, Journal of Visual Culture, and Sternberg Press; and anthologies by Duke University Press and MIT Press. Noorizadeh completed a PhD in Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is currently teaching in MA Geo-Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven and is a resident artist at the Rijksakademie (2026-2027). baharnoorizadeh.com The Otolith Collective is a London-based artist-led organisation founded by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun that supports intergenerational and intragenerational art practices through research-led projects, writing and process-based development. It fosters environments for discourse and collaboration by co-commissioning artists, curating exhibitions, programming screenings and organising public programmes with a wide range of local and international institutions and organisations. The Otolith Collective’s platforms take the form of workshops, reading groups, panels, book launches, listening sessions and publications. otolithgroup.org Image caption: Bahar Noorizadeh, still from videogame In Mortua Manu / In A Dead Hand, 2026.