How and through whose hands do they circulate? What is the face value of
money in different countries, particularly in times of social and
financial crises; of populist and economic nationalism; of pandemics?
What do concepts like happiness, fortune, and wealth mean to the
people who handle it? What is the actualized weight of paper money?
Since 2009, Peter Stamer and collaborators have been accompanying low denomination banknotes on their way through different countries. The banknotes thus become a mean to get acquainted with the people making use of that money. Every time a bill changes hands, the artists themselves are transferred along with it, becoming part of the transaction. In this way, money becomes a vehicle not only for economic exchange but also for personal encounters, offering a unique opportunity to witness the lives of those who come into temporary possession of it.
When a bill is spent, the artists are carried along into new contexts, often crossing paths with strangers and navigating uncharted territories. This transforms the act of following money into what could be called an “econographic” game, one that has the potential to bring micro-economies and their narratives into the light.
The project has been started in 2009 when Peter and his then collaborator Daniel Aschwanden left off more than ten years earlier when they followed two 10 and 20 yuan bills across China for four weeks and 4,000 km. The world then was witnessing the beginning of a global economic crisis that is still in full swing and that has been dragging entire economies down since.
More than a decade later, in a radically different economic landscape—shaped by rising right-wing extremism, the effects of a global pandemic, and shifting global power dynamics—Peter joined forces with artist Ilya Noé for The Path of Money in Mexico and Albania (2022). The time seemed ripe to explore micro-economies once more, this time focusing on the “alter-economies” at play in countries like Mexico and Albania, where social and financial realities are deeply intertwined with histories of hardship, resilience, and change.
The various Paths of Money projects in China, Austria, Mexico, and Albania have resulted in a wide range of artistic outcomes, including theatre performances, video installations, performative exhibitions, large-scale memory games, lecture-demonstrations, or story telling settings.
Gefördert durch die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Programm NEUSTART KULTUR, Hilfsprogramm DIS-TANZEN des Dachverband Tanz Deutschland.
Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR, aid programm DIS-TANZEN by the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland
