// Alba D'Urbano
//
Main;
Projects() {
Esposizione Impraticabile();
Mare();
The Negated Room();
Hautnah();
Touch Me;
Stoffwechsel;
Il Sarto Immortale();
Die Wunderschöne Wunde;
Tra cielo e terra;
L'età dell'oro() {
The Movies;
Venere;
Private Property();
Monitoraggio;
corpo_insegnante();
Natura Morta(); Redden/Erröten;
Son_no;
Airbag;
Collaborations();
Net-Works();
History();
Imprint;
L'età dell'oro(){
The Projekt;
} //2001
The installation "L'Età dell'oro" in the Kunsthalle Tirol was conceived to correspond to the exihibition's location, a former salt warehouse. The guiding idea was to construct an installation using traditionally precious resources, which subtly questions the worth of material goods. The installation attracted through an enormous amounts of gold coins out of chocolate, a typical and common product of the confectionary industry. These coins were on the one hand a traditional symbol for wealth and affluence and on the other hand an object childhood longings and memories.
The heaping up of the coins visualises initially a treasure. At the same time, however, it is to be understood as residue, as the beginning of the end. In the age of virtual currency money loses its fetishistic aura. What remains is the longing for the golden age: l'età dell'oro, as the nostalgic image of past happiness.
In the antique coins were adorned with the portraits of rulers. Today, cultural and intellectual figures determine the appearance of currency. They are politically neutral, stand for particular image, are invested with an aura. Money has always a correlation to politics, religion and ethics. The reflection of these values in money is, however, paradoxical since they cannot be transferred into material worth. The installation opposed this apparent unattainability with a concrete reality. A portrait of an underdernourished child taken from the internet, adorned one side of the chocolate coin. On the other side, referring to the main currency of our time, was the phrase "In god we trust", obsessively present on every dollar, whether note or coin. This proverbial "other side of the coin" was the background theme of the installation. The offered coins, 30.000 in number, correspond to the number of children who die each day as a result of hunger. Seen of above, the apparently randomly ordered coins, on the floor, had the form of the portrait. This was only visible via a web-camera attached to the ceiling.
The visitors were invited to partake, conciously or unconciously, in the pillaging and deconstruction, but must leave behind, in exchange, the corresponding monetary worth. This mountainous pile was precious in the true sense of the word. A second web-camera was aimed at a perspex box in which the money exchanged by the visitors, was collected. The progressive alteration caused by the visitors was trasmitted live via Internet*.
The installation, however setted a trap for the visitor, tempted by the
aura of money he/her made him/herself richer. Looking again it became clear
what he/she was holding in the hand: human capital fit for consumption.
(*Mac Netscape Users: Turn off Java-Plugin)