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RAINER GANAHL
Rainer Ganahl is an Austrian-born conceptual artist who lives and works in New York. His work has been widely exhibited, including the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; The Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York; the Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, Germany; and the 48th Venice Biennale. He is the subject and author of several published catalogues, among them, Reading Karl Marx (London: Book Works, 2001); Ortsprache—Local Language (Kunsthaus Bregenz, 1998), and Rainer Ganahl: Educational Complex (Vienna: Generali Foundation, 1997).
Money and Dreams
MONEY & DREAMS
Counting the Last Days of the Sigmund Freud Banknote
Paperback original, 260 pages, 100 color plates, $35
ISBN: 978-0-88214-565-5
From August 2001 to February 2002, Ganahl created a series of drawings entitled THE LAST DAYS OF THE SIGMUND FREUD BANKNOTE. This series is in reference to the introduction of the Euro as the new Austrian currency and the discontinuance of the Austrian 50 Schilling banknote, which bears a portrait of Sigmund Freud. In consideration of Freud's importance for dream analysis, Ganahl recorded his dreams each morning until February 28, 2002, when the Schilling ceased to be a legal tender in Austria. Each drawing contains one 50 Schilling note, the dream and its associations, as well as the daily recorded value of the 50 Schilling banknote in different currencies and the number of books on sale at major online booksellers, Amazon.com and Buecher.de.
With an introduction by the artist and texts by Paul Mattick, professor of philosophy at Adelphi University, and Sylvère Lotringer, General Editor of Semiotext(e), and a professor at the Center for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University.