paraíso [pa.ɾaˈi.so] masculine noun paradise, heaven
paraíso fiscal [pa.ɾaˈi.so fisˈkal] masculine noun tax haven
The City of London plays a global role in facilitating financial crime such as money laundering, tax evasion, and market manipulation. Yet, this position as a key hub for illicit finance is rarely talked about. Instead, we like to think that fraud and corruption happen mainly in tropical tax havens and kleptocratic dictatorships.
To challenge this general conception, Paraíso uses the City of London as a “stage” to tell the story of an imaginary banana republic. The project thus highlights how images reinforce binary stereotypes of Western financial centres as “clean” and developing countries as “corrupt”.