180+1
Mixed media installation Video (918 sec) on the carpet, live feed from bitcoin market
There are 180 circulating in the world currencies which are officially recognized as legal tender. The physical embodiment of a currency is a banknote, neatly decorated and printed out. Each of these heavily decorated pieces of paper is a bold statement of propaganda and national values. They symbolize the world divided by borders, nationalism, the governmental control.
Banknotes are part of the propagandistic machine each country creates. The most common propaganda symbols on the banknotes are faces of queens, presidents, kings or national heroes, official buildings and other national related items, which represent one's country self-identification
The research shows that the visual representations of all currencies are surprisingly very similar one to another. All countries are utilizing the same “visual code”, color schemes and aesthetics. The faces on the portraits are always presented within only 3 different approaches, the position of the head and the eyes are strictly determined.
The banknotes are representing the mentality of an “old world", occupied with old pre-technnological values. Being so heavily decorated and bearing so much of propaganda symbolic meanings they deserve to become the objects of handiwork as if they were part of decoration of an interior. Similar to the carpets.A completely opposite approach a mentality is represented by crypto currencies and blockchain system, which are decentralized, have no signs of propaganda or nationalism and have an open system of every transaction.
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The banknotes are representing the mentality of an “old world", occupied with old pre-technnological values. Being so heavily decorated and bearing so much of propaganda symbolic meanings they deserve to become the objects of handiwork as if they were part of decoration of an interior. Similar to the carpets.A completely opposite approach a mentality is represented by crypto currencies and blockchain system, which are decentralized, have no signs of propaganda or nationalism and have an open system of every transaction.
The meditative morphing of one currency, one queen to the other, one sheikh to the president creates a provocative melting pot for the old mentality. And confronted by a real-time flow of bitcoin transactions the artwork shows the dichotomy of the two mentalities – of the digital world and the traditional, old one.
