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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 23, June 3, 2001, Article 12 BOGGS IN BERLIN Money artist J.S.G. Boggs is in Berlin, living in the gallery where his "Making Money" exhibit opened on May 19. In an email newsletter he reports: "I'm spending my B-M (Boggs Mark, all puns intended!) instead of DM (Deutsche Mark). So far I've managed to spend one B-M 1000 Boggsnote (about $500.oo U.S.) for dinner with a little over DM 500 in change. Five POLIZEI (police) came the other night around midnight, banging on the door, shouting, and forcefully trying to twist the door handle. The lights were on, and they could see both money and boggs-bills in the window, and my sculpture/ performance work " 1 B € " (an attaché case with ONE BILLION EURO). They wanted in! I couldn't find the key to the door so I opened a window and started answering their questions. "Who is making this false money?", they demanded. I told them I am an artist, and my work is not "falsgeld" but "KunstGeld". I showed them a sheet prepared by the gallery with an explanation in German. That didn't seem to help too much, so I resorted to the "ace-in-the-hole", a letter from the German Senate giving me permission to do my work in Germany. Well....... That seemed to calm them down a bit, but they still weren't so convinced, and thought that maybe they should take me and my work down to the station for further discussion. SCHISSE! (as the Germans would say). Then I grabbed one of my B-M 10 notes with a picture of STEFFI (who works at the gallery) on it. Its modeled after the DM 100 note, so it isn't the same colour, and the guy on the DM 10 isn't looking too happy. They smiled, and seemed to like it." "Do you think this is worth ten D-Mark?", I asked. They started to bob their heads back and forth as they considered. Each raising one eyebrow, they seemed to be conceding the point. But, well...there still might be a problem... The EURO! My ONE BILLION EURO sculpture is made using 1,000 of Naples Bank Note Company's €1,000,000 Euro Notes. Since people are not used to the Euro, perhaps they wouldn't realize it was art. I grabbed one of the €1,000,000.oo Euro notes. Got WechselGeld? They all burst out laughing. WechselGeld means "the change" in German. I paid them a €1.000.000 Euro Note and off they went into the night."

Wayne Homren, Editor

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