Anti_Leviathan

The Law x Art project “An2_leviathan” ques2ons values, ethics and power dynamics surrounding tax heaves and the inequality deriving from them. The project is twofold: it features a prototype for an artwork and ini2ates a discursive format. The project’s 2tle contests how the mythological sea monster Leviathan became a metaphor for state and poli2cal power. Whilst monsters are simplis2cally associated with evil, they rather manifest fears and embody ambigui2es of society. An2_Leviathan magnifies such an ambiguity and reflects on how power determines what is monstrous and what is norma2ve. The project thus invites the audience to reflect on how immense economic wealth can shape lawless spaces of privilege that ignore social, poli2cal or environmental ethics. The prototype of the artwork features fragile biological maIer represen2ng ethical values that are in constant flux and can be disrupted by power and wealth. The discursive format invites ci2zens, specialists, and culture-makers to engage with the ramifica2ons of tax havens, without puritanical finger-waving, but rather aims to open up much needed conversa2ons about ethics and society.

Professor Sommerer’s book project RIFT IN THE CODE OF THE WORLD SOCIETY investigates the international crime thriller of Offshore Financial Centers (e.g. Panama, Malta, Britisch Virgin Islands). It demonstrates how Offshore creates inequalities, promotes white-collar crime and endangers democracies. The project deems the old familiar question of inequality BEFORE the law as insufficient for capturing the inequality mechanisms of a globally interconnected present. Rather, a much more fundamental question must be asked: Whether inequalities in our global society are not entrenched IN the law itself.