In the context of Art Price and Value, an exhibition curated by Franziska Nori at Strozzina Contemporary Art Center, visual artist Cesare Pietroiusti coveres a wall with 3000 one and five-dollars bills previously treated with sulphuric acid and stamped on their back side. Due to these interventions each of the bancknotes has lost its worth as a currency while being transformed into a unique work of art.
The visitors are invited to take one of the bills, on the back side of which Pietroiusti has marked the following instruction: each monetary transaction involving this artwork will invalidate the signature of its author and consequently transform it into a fake. This project plays on the fundamental elements of the art system, namely authorship, originality, authenticity, possession and monetary value.
We met him in Florence, just before his lecture Forme paradossali di scambio and we talked about value and relational art. The conversation is in Italian.