A collaborative project with Alex Villar
Lisbon City Museum, curated by Miguel Amado
Lisbon City Council and Miguel Amado Projects are presenting the exhibition “The Philosophy of Money”, which opens on June 22 at 10 pm at the Pavilhão Branco of the Museu da Cidade in Lisbon. This exhibition brings together works by 28 artists who, in the light of the current financial crisis, examine money as the “God of the modern age”.This exhibition is inspired by the theses of German philosopher Georg Simmel in the book “The Philosophy of the Money”, published in 1900. The exhibition examines the capitalist system as a way of life in contemporary times, as well as the renewed critique one of its basis generated by the current financial crisis. The works that are presented in this exhibition, several of which were commissioned, explore money in its multiple symbolic facets – from means of exchange to icon – and address the present economic recession, illustrating art’s answers to such reality. Simmel studied the psychological dimension of the monetarization of Western societies, considering money as the “God of the modern age”. For Simmel, the replacing of the traditional bonds existing between the individuals by money implied the depersonalization of social relations, the origin of the paradigm of the free initiative, one of the features of capitalism along with private property. This theoretical legacy characterizes, through a critical perspective, the vision of the world of the artists who are participating in this exhibition. Among other topics, the works on view redesign paper-currency, quote political manifestos and movements marked by the resistance to dominant thinking, question the predominance of the corporative ideology and ironize about the commodification of the artistic object.