A Moeda Viva [Living Currency] at Galerias Municipais de Lisboa – Galeria Quadrum
I have come to carve your
fingers into tiny coins and
pay your heart with them for the
evil you have dealt me.[1]
A Moeda Viva is the latest exhibition at Galeria Quadrum. It features works by artists Ângela Ferreira, António Contador & Carla Cruz, Cildo Meireles, Fábio Colaço, Filipa César, Filipe Pinto, Isa Toledo, Isabel Cordovil, Leonor Antunes, Lourdes Castro, Luís Paulo Costa, Mauro Cerqueira, Nuno Henrique, Pedro A.H. Paixão and Rita GT, curated by Maria do Mar Fazenda, whose central theme, as the very title implies, is money – in English Living Currency. The rationale behind this curatorship is clearly not to criticise the arts funding or the art market. It is based, however, on exploring the dominance that this exchange token plays in our society and the different ways in which we relate to it.
Using pieces from different generations, whether or not they have been redesigned, belong to museum, private or institutional collections, and happen to be a one-off in an artist’s career or a recurrent and central theme, this exhibition examines the different manifestations of money and its worth, and introduces several reimagined dimensions of this convention.
It is widely known that money is a central notion in our society’s economy and finances and that it takes on different forms and roles. This standardised yardstick of value, allowing the prices of goods and services to be roughly equated, bonds subjects with objects, and subjects with objects, by “stripping them of all their qualities, reducing them to a single unit and thus rendering everything, all the complex and unparalleled tonality, into a monotonous sum”[2].
“Money is a means, a material, an instance for displaying the relationships between the most superficial, realistic and haphazard phenomena and the most idyllic forces of existence, the deepest streams of individual life and history”[3] and is therefore often explored in artistic output, whether in a critical or satirical tone, or with the purpose of encouraging us to reflect on consumer society, economic disparity and materialism. A Moeda Viva is based on Pierre Klossowski’s essay La Monnaie Vivante, from which the title is taken – as Maria do Mar Fazenda explains on the title page – and on Robert Bresson’s film L’Argent (1983), adapting Tolstoy’s short story The Forge Coupon. It does not draw on the two different approaches, but somehow carries on the exploration and questioning of what this kind of exchange stands for. This is a range of works by artists who may or may not have directly targeted the topic in their research and creation, but were nevertheless influenced by the financial realities of the art world, either by reflecting on the complex interaction they have with artistic creativity, or by rejecting the system. The works Sombras e chocolates (moedas) (1974), S/ Títullo (from the Diamantes series) (2018) and Pick a card from the One in/A/Million/Aire series (2021) are all illustrative examples of the critical approach taken by Lourdes de Castro, Ângela Ferreira and Isa Toledo.
Whilst Fábio Colaço welcomes us with 500€ (Welcome (500€), 2019), Cildo Meireles presents us with zero banknotes and cents (Inserções em Circuitos Antropológicos – Zero Dollar Zero Cent, 1974 – 1978 Notas, moedas) to buy whatever we want. The various materials and layouts immediately reveal the cross-sectional nature of the theme through the willingness to condemn and deal with the absurdity and desecration of money. Bear in mind the question posed by the artist Cildo Meireles: “Art is a prostitute. It stands where the money is”[4] – but what is or should be the real scale of this kind of exchange?
Along with the exhibition text is one by Filipe Pinto, published in the magazine Economia Social, stating that money, insofar as it is a surrogate for the value of things, is “harmful and slightly absurd if one considers that these scraps of paper or metal are one of the primary objects of most human actions”. The idea that a mere piece of paper, a fragile object converted into accounting capital, takes centre stage in everyday decisions and global political discussions, is brought to A Moeda Viva with an enquiring and thought-provoking perspective. A kind of cult is apparent here, the cult of money and its different forms, acquiring divine power that can handle anything, turning society obsessed and dependent in an attempt to fulfil its cravings. After having read about the problem of addiction, Isabel Cordovil devised the work Schrödinger – 99 small squares (scratch cards) of expendable hope, 99 chances to remain unknown[5], reminding us of the obsession and submission to the value of money and what it can buy.
The exhibition also features works from António Contador and Carla Cruz’s Finding Money project. Built together since 2011, it posits the question that, beyond monetary circulation, money can be given a whole new face through artistic reuse. Like Filipa César, Mauro Cerqueira, Luís Paulo Costa and other artists featured here, it questions our consumer systems and the impact they have on the way we relate to each other.
“Whether through dialogue affinities, tensions or disagreements”[6], the group of works listed above and the others in the exhibition are meant to address the issue of the actual value and symbolic nature of this symbol of exchange, but they also create new possible narratives by bringing together and clashing the different works in the exhibition venue.
A Moeda Viva can be seen until September 8, at Galeria Quadrum.
[1] Hugo Mãe, Valter. (2018). publicação da mortalidade. Excerpt from the poem Contabilidade. Assírio & Alvim, Porto Editora, pág. 59.
[2] Simmel, Georg. Hauptprobleme der Philosophie. Gesamtausgabe, 6, p. 714.
[3] Id. Ibid., p. 12.
[4] The artist in brasil.elpais.com.
[5] Isabel Cordovil on her Instagram post regarding the exhibition.
[6] Exhibition text.