Since the introduction of self-checkout counters, shoplifting has risen. The phenomenon inspired Dries Verhoeven to explore the moral frictions of our late-capitalist society. He spoke with 24 people who occasionally ‘forget’ to pay for their groceries, with thieves in detention, and with those who consider theft a form of political resistance. These proletarian shoppers and self-proclaimed Robin Hoods were invited to examine themselves and the world in which they operate.

Amidst the debris of the free market, he discovered a group of cynical consumers who have internalized the opportunistic ethos of their economic environment: Why be virtuous when the world is going to hell? Yet, in public, they present themselves as good people. Just like for the supermarket, for them, ethics is more a matter of appearance.

‘Everything Must Go’ is a living installation that can be visited continuously for six hours a day. A gallery presents a replica of a supermarket aisle, equipped with numerous CCTV cameras. A performer, dressed as Snow White with a pig mask, embodies the neoliberal consumer. Performers Isadora Tomasi, Annica Muller, and Rosie Sommers alternate. Visitors can walk around the installation, peek inside between the products, or follow the events in the supermarket through screens. Like surveillance in a panopticon, they observe the “suspicious subject.” While defending her own behavior, she dissects the contradictions of her economic environment. The text is based on interviews with shoplifting experts and on the words of Jean Genet, Karl Marx, Ruben Östlund, Rachel Shteir, Mathild Clerc-Verhoeven, and Slavoj Žižek.