Just over a decade into the 21st century and one has the pervasive feeling that we’ve been here before. The ebb and flow of the global economic systems that push and pull against the arenas of cultural production is a dizzying déjà vu. As we are now in the midst of another great global recession, it becomes crucial to reflect on the intertwined history of economic empires as they rise and fall, and the social and cultural sectors that respond to their inevitable shifts. Duncan Campbell’s Arbeit (2011, video, 39 min.) and Hito Steyerl’s In Free Fall (1990, video, 35 min.) are two such reflections, each capturing a piece in the puzzle of Europe’s economic folly—cautionary tales of the post-Gilded Age. Screened in conjunction with the exhibition Jeremy Deller: Joy In People.