Virtual credit cards of the 25 richest people on earth, corresponding to a total of 760.6 billion US-Dollars

PVC cards, dimensions 22x24x5.5 cm, 2008

Every year Forbes.com LLC, an American publishing and media company, regularly provides lists of the world`s billionaires.
Based on this we used fictitious credit cards, which are still a valid symbol for independence, in order to represent the fragility of a system, which replaces the value in use by the demonstration of imaginary-symbolic-social distinction.
This 25 pieces of plastic represent a value of 760.6 billion dollars in autumn 2008; considering the gross national income in 2007 (1) they rank 15th position just before Australia.

(1) Gross national income 2007, Atlas method; World Development Indicators database, World Bank, revised 10 September 2008

Forbes chart house

copyright © Martin Mathy

The project was made in cooperation with Steffen Strassnig