About the part that art plays in a globalising society

Framer Framed

Chains - Stadsbank Van Lening

17 Jan 2023
19:30 - 21:30

Launch: CHAINS Podcast

MacGuffin magazine presents CHAINS, a podcast created by Alix de Massiac in which the Stadsbank van Lening, the pawnshop of the municipality of Amsterdam, is brought into focus. In five short parts, through interviews with clients and employees, CHAINS explores the ups and downs of the Stadsbank van Lening and the jewelry that is pawned and sold there. Before and behind the scenes, gold and jewelry play a major role in the lives of the interviewees.

With each issue based around a single object, MacGuffin magazine is a platform for fans of inspiring, personal, unexpected, highly familiar or utterly disregarded things. In CHAINS, the Stadsbank van Lening serves as an object and provides the occasion to discuss social themes such as guilt, loss and shame. This is done on the basis of an extraordinary loan for millions of guilders from the Romanov collection in the 1980s and an everyday gold necklace with Zirconia pendant for forty euros in 2022.

As the Stadsbank van Lening will depart from its original location on the Nes after more than 400 years, it is a perfect time to sketch a portrait of this historic institution that seeks to ethically assist when money is in short supply. From grain and tobacco to musical instruments and telephones, everything that had some value was collateralised by the Stadsbank van Lening.

On Tuesday 17 January 2023 Framer Framed will host the launch of CHAINS. The podcast series, the remarkable story of the Stadsbank and pawning in popular culture, will be further elaborated upon and discussed by podcast maker Alix de Massiac and by Marijke Carasso-Kok, author of a book about the history of the Stadsbank. Learn more about this unique place. Who does it cater to, and what is its significance within Amsterdam’s socio-economic infrastructure?

Money is life. Stay alive.

This event is moved from the 24th of November to the 17th of January 2023. The starting time for the event has changed to 19:30. Sorry for the inconvenience.



Book Launch /