The day money disappears
Prelude
Le jour où l’argent disparaîtra (The day when money disappears), this phrase emerged during a collective discussion, near a refuge, in the middle of snow-covered nature,night falling, wrapped in blankets, warming ourselves around a fire,
The next day,we were going to make the money disappear.
The next day, going deeper into the high mountains, our steps reached a frozen lake: under the snow, ice, under the ice, water.
Positioning itself in the vanguard, exploring, ensuring the field, questioning us both metaphorically and literally, on the question of the suppression of capital that structures our societies and our human relationships.
Like a ritual act, a symbolic atonement embodied in a system at the end of its tether, deep in the wilderness,we joyfully prepare for the day whenmoneydisappears.
This was not our first nature walk, as last year’s Azimuth exhibition had already set us off for another mountain valley.
Once again, with snowshoes on our feet and 15 kg of Nordic gold on our backs, we left. This time, the expeditionismotivated by: Under the ice, the water,anexhibition in production at the Caisse d’Épargnede Nice Masséna. An exposure in a bank? Strange you say…
Certainly, and that’s why Palam was faced with a difficult choice when he was offered this location. There is some‘on the one hand, recognition as a group of‘part of the‘local cultural institution, the‘access to a production budget, central visibility in local life, and a means of reaching a different audience than the one the‘we meet most of the time in the current circles of contemporary art. And ontheother hand, a difficult location, unsuited to exhibition, marked by the symbolic charge of a bank and the values involvedinexhibitingindoors.
But, we were told, there is no neutral space. An institution, a museum, a gallery : same fight ?
Should art disregard the conditions of monstration or,onthe contrary, attach importance to questioning them?
So we decided to accept,with a view to questioning in depththeframework in which the exhibition originated.
Palam has demonstrated its sensitivity to the ecological cause on several occasions in the past, and far from being an affectation, it is part of the collective’s DNA. And to prevent it from being relegated to an ancillary role, wehadto examine the bank’srelationshipwith ecology in its day-to-day operations.
Is subsidizing artists who talk about ecology enough to make oneself an ecological institution? Especially when, moreover, it subsidizes fossil fuels much more?
We had carte blanche for this exhibition. And we can only thank the bank for this allowed freedom. Without her, the protest could not have taken place.
In this context, we have the preposterous idea that there is a link between banks and capitalism, a cause-and-effect relationship between capitalism and the ecological-social emergency. We’ve decided to use the bank’s capital as a plastic material, and its literal and symbolic destruction as a means of artistic expression.
At the first Palam meeting of the expo, two questions quickly emerged:
We didn’t want to decorate a waiting room, and it seemed impossible to question the ecology of these walls. Therefore, a simple question arises: “How to escape fromtheplace? “.
Through our previous projects, we have distinguished ourselves with mountainous walks. This time, the ideaoftaking the visitor out of the bank and even out of the city is imposed.
Our second thought:What would be the most ecological way to use the budget?
Degrowth”inmind… allusions to “the carbon footprint”… “the circulation of money, all that…”. We concluded that the destruction of money was perhaps the most ecologically powerful act of all. Have we finally brought the debate to a conclusion?
It seemed like we were heading down a critical path. Self-censorship makes us mince ourwords.
Degrowth, anti-capitalism in a bank:Expected? Easy ? Necessary ? We will strive to be relevant.
All in all,thebrainstorm was launched,not everything can be revealed here. What you can remember is that at the beginning of January we went for a walk in the heart of the Mercantour to hide a secret. The Under the Ice, the Water exhibition provides clues, like a treasure hunt. Bringing the visitor out of the partitioning space of the bank, and the urban saturation.
Far from looking for a simple object, the quest is to understand its nature, to understand the meaning of this act, the induced questions as poetic as political.
In the refuge it was cold, the dormitory was not heated, 2 meters of snow on the roof protected us somewhat from the freezing night, 6 blankets for some, a Northface duvet resistant to -40 for the others, the night was difficult, you can imagine.
Art is like a societal experiment, aiming at clearing, opening the paths that humanity will be able to take. In the vanguard, our group gropes, assures, explores the ground of a meeting between nature, collective, and post-capitalist society.
We’ll leave you here for now, but come back soon with the rest of the text, and perhaps some more clues.
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