If the globalised notion of a bank originated from the italian banca, the merchant’s bench, what might a bank look like if it had emerged elsewhere? BanKanga InterTropical imagines its foundations not as wood but as cloth: the canga of Brazil and the khanga of the Swahili Coast. These textiles unfold as temporary grounds for gathering, carrying, offering, resting, and exchanging. Here, trust travels farther than money and roots remember longer than credit scores.

Along the road, the canga collected stories of rotating savings circles also known as roscas, susu, chitchit or chilimbas, and protocols for communal labour such as minga, tequio and mutirão. It carries accounts of community banking in Brazil and commitment pooling in Kenya.

At transmediale studio, BanKanga offers an evolving spatial environment, braiding diagrams, textiles, maps, and hanging·structures that introduce reciprocal traditions from different tropical regions. One could think of a street fest in which the architectures of trading are creolised through multi·situated economies and collectively-backed forms of value.

Feiticinhos – Casting Spells for a Post-Money Bank

Join the BanKanga space at 18:00 for Feiticinhos, an interTropical protocol activation: Our temporary community is invited to cast spells for a post-money bank, invoking a gradually growing infrastructure of reciprocity. Rather than presenting alternate economies as historical curiosities, this gathering activates them as living social technologies through collective experimentation. The bank becomes less a vault than a commons continuously assembled through those who gather upon it.