The mayor of Frederiksberg, Denmark, Mads Lebech, clips the ribbon off Kraemmer's head in the opening ceremony for the physical artmoney showroom
Making art the bank
by Cate Montana
FREDERIKSBERG, Denmark - The Bank of International Art Money (BIAM) began as a not-so-subtle statement about global society's "financial slavery," flowing from the creative mind of artist Lars Kraemmer in 1997. Now BIAM is an Internet based art project with physical headquarters and over 500 artists from around the world issuing "original artmoney bills" to BIAM as a global alternative currency.
Representing a purchasing value equal to 27 euro/ 34 US$/ 200 Danish Kroner, artmoney can be spent in participating registered shops and businesses all over the world for purchases, the amount of which is determined by the individual business. Artmoney can be used as payment for accommodation at any BIAM host. Artmoney can also be spent at non-registered shops and businesses around the world wherever it will be accepted. It can also used for purchasing work from registered artmoney artists for up to 50% of the value of any given piece on the market.
Since 1998, unlike the US dollar which continues to devalue, artmoney has been increasing in market value every year. "Art holds a value wherever you find people," says Kraemmer, who is still somewhat bemused by the international scope of his project. "With artmoney you don't have to barter, as it is a set value, so shopping is easy." As testimony, Kraemmer says he has used artmoney to build his house, buy clothes and food, and pay the dentist, his accountant, and his lawyer. "I even paid back my student loan with artmoney," he says.
Careful not to emulate the euro or any other form of governmental fiat currency, artmoney measures 12x18 cm, and each "note" is an original work of art by a participating artist. Subject matter is limited only to the imagination of the artist, as is the medium - so long as it can stand handling without breaking or staining. Each artmoney piece must exhibit the BIAM web site address www.art-money.org, a serial number, year, artist nationality, artist name, artist signature and an optional artist logo.
Registration as a BIAM artist is free, and requires an application plus three artmoney examples meeting the above criteria sent to BIAM. The three initial artmonies are the property of BIAM, and BIAM asks the individual artist to limit the production of art money to the value represented by their personal production. For example if an artist has art in storage valued at 7,000 Euros, the limit for art money production is set at 7,000 Euros.
Artmoney holds the same value regardless of the artist name or exhibition history. The value of artmoney is founded in aesthetics and the artmoney concept rather than normal art market mechanics. It makes no difference to the value of artmoney that the artist is world famous or a total unknown. An artist can be deleted from BIAM at any time following their request or based on BIAM decision. Artists, however, must keep in mind that any artmoney issued by them will always hold the artist's word to be redeemed toward art or services regardless of any later decisions.
How it all started
 Art money by Heidi Bartelsen - Denmark |
"What if it was possible to break the mental chains of financial slavery by introducing an individual currency to global trade?"
True, Kraemmer sold original, signed paintings for money so he could pay his bills. But, he points out, natural trade economy is actually the oldest known currency, and throughout history artists have exchanged art for goods and services. He often skipped the "money" part himself, paying for things directly with his art rather than reaching for his wallet. Why not combine the two methods and introduce the original drawing itself as a new kind of alternative currency?
Inspired, Kraemmer cut some water color paper into 12x18 cm pieces, a little larger than money and smaller than what is usually considered "art." The format allowed both landscape and portrait styles. He painted a motif and signed the drawing, carried on with serial number, production year, and his full legible name. Next Kraemmer wrote a set of game rules, which guaranteed that one could redeem the bill toward art at the amount of 20 Euro, naming it "art money" in English because he intended the trade to be global.
"The word 'art' indicated that it was an original work of art," says Kraemmer. "'Money'" indicated that it could be 'spent' and that the value for all artmoney was to be the same. The human touch was intended to give the trade object 'life,' and as such hold an inherent value. It was, altogether, an attempt to join good and evil in a single object. Plus and minus. One original "battery of human value" created by an artist with the purpose of maintaining a purchasing function for all places and all times, to be cashed in for goods or services wherever and whenever needed. And of course it was all meant to be fun."
A few days after he had created his first artmoney, an art collector dropped by Kraemmer's studio. He liked the idea and bought the first four notes. That Christmas season Kraemmer attempted to spend artmoney at small shops in downtown Copenhagen. Many places refused the idea, but some accepted, and some even gave back change to honor the value. "I was happily surprised at the willingness I met," he says. "It occurred to me that I might be looking at a great potential if artmoney could be accepted in a big way someday. The next month I built my own house and paid 2/3 in art works and 1/3 of the cost in artmoney."
With the help of Copenhagen artist Vincent, from the artist collective "Syntese," Kraemmer discussed how other artists could get involved in producing artmoney. Vincent suggested a portal on the Internet where they could build a "bank" to create an inexpensive, accessible location to help artists worldwide sign up as producers. The intent? To have authorized artmoney in circulation at several locations around the world at the same time.
"It was not our intention to make a profit - quite the opposite," admits Kraemmer. "We wished to attempt financial freedom by not needing money! This could be realized if we succeeded at introducing artmoney as an accepted payment for goods and services worldwide. Rather than reaching for financial wealth, we reached for financial freedom."
Although European artists proved skeptical, artmoney exhibitions in a Vancouver, British Columbia gallery and a gallery in New York City offered Danish artists a place to show if they would register and make some artmoney. Twenty artists joined BIAM. The Andre Emil Gallery on Granville Street in Vancouver, and the Gathering of the Tribes Gallery in Lower East Side Manhattan both had a broad network, and artmoney made headways in both Canada and USA.
Then, in 1999, the Danish newspaper "Politiken - Kultur & Debat" printed a full front page article titled: "Money is something you paint." The story triggered media attention in Scandinavian countries.
In 2001, BIAM received an invitation to participate in the 25th annual coin fair in Aalborg, Denmark. Kraemmer presented his artmoney alongside antique coins. It was the first time an established "money organisation" recognized artmoney as an alternative currency. In 2002, BIAM was invited to exhibit in the prestigious "Øksnehallen" in downtown Copenhagen. One hundred artists were invited to build an installation investigating "Human value." A book on art money was printed and former National Bank Director Erik Hoffmeier opened the show with a speech explaining the artmoney concept in financial terms. Auction house Lauritz.com conducted the sale of more than 700 pieces of artmoney in an exhibition titled: "Money Without Borders." Money from the art sale was donated to "Doctors Without Borders."
Today, Kraemmer says BIAM can best be understood as a tool for investigating the nature of human value. "BIAM itself is an ever changing organism," he says, "which hopes to contribute to the discovery of beauty in general and individual purpose in specific."
A practical project based on decentralized management, every BIAM artist is considered an "art bank manager" and has a mandate to shape the evolution of artmoney through their own acts and suggestions. Kraemmer says he hopes that one day shops and businesses around the world will be able to accept artmoney as payment along with fiat money and credit cards. He also hopes it can expand to the point where it can: 1) allow poor people to shop where they could not shop before. 2) Allow shops to sell where they could not sell before. 3) Help poor people in areas of war or natural disaster to establish a functional trade system with little means. 4) Allow people to house guests at little cost and encourage meetings between different people and cultures under private and friendly circumstances.
Bottom line, he sees artmoney as a global trade object with a human touch that can encourage a network of people around the world to cross boundaries and unite the world in a positive spirit.
"Try it," he urges. "All it takes is initiative."
For more information: www.art-money.org -- info@art-money.org or visit the artmoney showroom at Thurøvej 3, baghuset 2000 Frederiksberg - Denmark. Please call for an appointment +45 75827777
Book Review: Cosmic Serpent
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by Jeremy Narby
Review by Cate Montana
In 1985 Jeremy Narby was an eager, 25 year-old anthropology student doing fieldwork for his doctorate in anthropology from Stanford University. For two years he lived amongst the Ashaninca natives in the community of Quirishari in the Peruvian Amazon’s Pichis Valley. "My training had lead me to expect that people would tell tall stories," relates Narby. "I thought my job as an anthropologist was to discover what they really thought, like some kind of private detective."
The only "tall story" Narby heard however, was a consistent one. In conversations about plants, animals, the forests, herbal remedies, and all things related to Nature, Narby was told over and over again that the source of all the native’s deep knowledge was gained by the work of ayahuasqueros, the shamans who would drink a hallucinatory preparation of the ayahuasca vine. "Each time, I would ask myself what they really meant when they said this," he says.
Despite the astonishing botanical knowledge of the people, whose gardens were masterpieces of seemingly random but actually highly sophisticated companion planting, and whose pharmacopeia from over 80,000 Amazonian plant species was nothing short of miraculous… Narby, like anthropologists before him, maintained a jaundiced air of Western superiority. The only crack in the veneer came when he actually experienced an ayahuasca journey under the supervision of a native guide, well trained in the vine’s use. As visions and non-verbal knowledge poured into him during his experience, he was appalled to witness the "bottomless arrogance of my presupposition." The experience changed his life.
Narby returned to his native Switzerland, finished his dissertation and went to work with an organization dedicated to promoting community development in Third World countries. He also started writing a book on Amazonian shamanism and ecology. But his real breakthrough in understanding came when he decided to abandon the Western position of intellectual skepticism that said that plants can’t communicate and that knowledge can only be transmitted verbally. He embraced the shamans at their word - and was shocked to discover how precisely the images and "language" of ayahuasceros and other shamans from around the world matched modern genetic discoveries in DNA.
On all five continents, shamans recognize the existence of animate essences, or "spirits," common to all life forms, both human and non-human. Their descriptions, whether emanating from the Amazon, or the deserts of Australia are remarkably consistent, referring to spiral ladders, stairways, vines, braided ropes, and two-headed serpents linking heaven and earth. Creation stories from all five continents refer to the cosmic serpent. The images exactly match the double helix form of DNA and chromosome structures which are identical in all life forms on Earth.
Aboriginal rock art, it appeared, could have been copied from images taken from under an electron microscope.
Clearly and engagingly written, The Cosmic Serpent is a journey of revelation and a healing of cultures. The humbling discoveries of one scientist, and the shattering of narrow-minded viewpoints and prejudice, are a delight to behold. And bless him, Narby never misses an opportunity to give credit to the wisdom of his "simple" native friends.
Returning to the Pichis Valley after nine years, he sat down with one of his local mentors, eagerly relating his discoveries. "Uncle," he writes. "Remember all those things you explained in the tape recorder that I had trouble understanding? Well, after thinking about it for years, and then studying it, I have discovered that in scientific terms all the things you told me were true."
"What took you so long?" he said.
