In June 2010, Peter, Daniel and Jam Pei, our Chinese collaborator, were invited to do an Austrian Path of Money during the Sommer Szene Festival in Salzburg. We decided to follow both a 5 Euro as well as a 10 Euro note on their way through Austria. Our starting point was at the café of Szene Salzburg.
After the 10 Euro note crossed the paths of Birgit, Thomas and Michaela, it eventually landed in the hands of Julia, a student and waitress at the Humboldt Stuben Salzburg, our Stop 4 …
After spending an entire day accompanying Julia—even sitting in on one of her university exams—she eventually passed the bill (and us) on to Stefan, our Stop 5.
We spent the day with a slightly hungover Stefan, who was nonetheless willing to let us tag along. He took us up to the Festung Hohensalzburg and later brought us to a viewing of a new apartment somewhere in the Salzburg suburbs. In the evening, he headed to his favorite spot, the Humboldt Stuben, where he finally spent our tenner on beer. There, the bill passed to Monika, who used it to buy a rose from “Habibi,” one of the local flower vendors. And that is where we lost its trail—the banknote disappeared into the heat of the Salzburg summer night …
Where did our bill go? And so we were looking for our banknote by publishing this letter in the local newspapers:
“Money wanted — reward guaranteed!
As part of the art project The Path of Money, the two artists Peter Stamer and Daniel Aschwanden handed a marked 10-euro banknote to an unknown person late in the evening on June 22. Since then, the bill, marked with a round red sticker, has been circulating around Salzburg. The artists are now searching for the person currently in possession of this banknote. Whoever holds this 10-euro note is asked to contact Szene Salzburg. As a reward, the artists offer an entire afternoon at the finder’s full disposal.”
But to no avail. We had embark on the journey with a 5 Euro bill.