‘Chicago Boys, While We Were Singing, They Were Dreaming’ is an ongoing project initiated by Kurdish artist and musician Hiwa K whose interest lies in processes of informal knowledge. By organising a 1970s revival band that also works as neoliberalism study group, the project explores different relations or, in Hiwa’s words, “affairs” between popular music and history as made behind the scenes by the original Chicago Boys, a group of young economists trained by neoliberal economist Milton Friedman in Chicago. They shaped the Chilean economic policy under Pinochet and marked the beginning of the widespread implementation of neoliberalism, which in turn highlights the political and cultural developments in the Middle East for the last three decades. Todays ‘Chicago Boys’ consists of those who do not necessarily have musical experience or specialised knowledge about the economy but who develop it together. Connecting performative musical experience with learning processes, ‘Chicago Boys’ effects a montage of different political and economic events and music genres from the 1970s and early 1980s, in relation to the present. It suggests the possibility that music can, however indirectly or hidden, articulate fundamental shifts in the political economy.

   

Quelle Text: www.artplaces.org

Quelle Bilder: www.serpentinegallery.org und www.hikwak.net