Recently saw Hito Steyerl talking about betting markets and contemporary art. I want to understand what they were saying. Maybe you do?
Full interview with Josh Citarella on Doomscroll here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLrXie8DUnI
The video starts with them talking about it. They (Steyerl) say:
> this medium of contemporary art as a kind of tax evasion mechanism, you know, reputation enhancement is no longer really necessary because, you know, betting markets are starting to take that function in a much more easy and frictionless way. So, I think that maybe, you know, I mean, it will still hang on for a while, but uh the function it had that's not going to come back, I'm afraid. Yeah.
Are they saying they don't think the moneyed elite have to buy a Rothko to seem cool anymore, now they just go bet on Polymarket or Kalshi?
I see that they specifically reference tax evasion. I wasn't aware that betting markets are a taxable income sink.
Long story short I'm not clear on what they mean and Citarella seemed to take it as a given requiring no further discussion.
Your take?