Bone money
The bone money was an art campaign and at the same time a form of free money that took place in the period from November 6th to December 29th, 1993 as part of the "bone money experiment - artists make money, the gallery as a bank, the exchange office" in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg was in circulation. The project was also initiated by the o two gallery founded in 1991 and its founder Wolfgang Krause .
Background and action
The "Bone Money" campaign was a symbolic attempt, in a satirical way, to increase awareness of money and the alleged decline in the value of money through the capitalist interest economy. The idea of Schwundgeldes according to Silvio Gesell was experimented with by creating and disseminating a parallel currency to the D-Mark, which at that time had only been introduced three years ago, in the district that was formerly part of East Berlin . This currency was designed from the start to have a significant depreciation of 5% per week.
The start of the campaign was November 6, 1993. On this day the banknotes, which were created by a total of around 50 international artists, were first issued via the decentralized bank in the gallery o two . All banknotes had a value of 20 bones and could be exchanged for 20 D-Marks at a ratio of 1: 1 on the day of issue. In the following weeks the value fell continuously, the notes were revalued with stick-on tokens. You could shop with the bones in 29 shops and restaurants, some of which also introduced special promotions for bone money.
Various other artists were involved in the accompanying artistic program. That's how the movie What's Up? by the Berlin filmmaker Harun Farocki , there was also a scrap installation by the alternative artist dead chickens zur Bank and the band project Bone = Girl . Lectures on the topics of complementary currency , interest bondage and inflation should round off the entire action in terms of content and embed it in the context of the discussion about the decline in value.
development
The bone money ensured lively reporting both locally and nationally. However, only about a quarter of the issued banknotes were actually brought into active circulation, the rest were kept by the owners as art objects, the value of which increased significantly in the period after the campaign due to international attention. The German Historical Museum bought a complete set of bone notes for its numismatics collection, as did the Prenzlauer Berg Cultural Office at the time, which included them in its municipal art collection (today the municipal art collection of the Pankow district office). The notes can be viewed in both collections.
Participating artists
The following artists were involved in the action:
GP Adam, Gamma Bak , Breeda CC , Nils Chlupka , Henning Christiansen (DK), Ludwig Eben , Group M , Josefine Günschel , Daniel Habegger , Stephan Hachtmann , Klaus Haller & Gloria Mészáros , Rita Hensen , Uta Hünniger , Brad Hwang (USA) , Anne Jud , Sabine Herrmann , Urs Jaeggi (CH), MK Kähne , Siglinde Kallnbach , Laura Kikauka (Canada), Klaus Killisch , Jeanette Kipka , Dietmar Kirves , Wolfgang Krause , Hans Peter Kuhn , Dirk Lebahn , Helge Leiberg , Via Lewandowsky , Ronald Lippok , Angela Lubic , Sarah Marrs (USA), Wolfgang Müller , Carsten Nicolai , Olaf Nicolai , Bert Papenfuß , AR Penck , Andrea Pichl , Raabenstein , Volker Ries , Jenny Rosemeyer , WA Scheffler , Christine Schlegel , Thomas Schliesser , Jürgen Schneider, Gerd Sonntag , Klaus Staeck , Holger Stark , Strawalde , Niko Tenten , Klaus Theuerkauf , Ina Wilczek , Volker Wilczek , Igor Zaidel (GUS), Mike Zimmermann (USA).
Individual evidence
- ↑ to the archive of the gallery o two
See also
literature
- Christoph Tannert: bone money. In: Kathleen Krenzlin (ed.): Weekly market and bone money. Lukas, Berlin 2006, pp. 122–123, ISBN 3-936872-83-X .