Other Issues is a  multiform project that investigates and documents historical issues of heterogeneous forms of currency during periods of scarcity. Countless as those cases of ‘necessity money’ are through history and around the world, I focused on three cases of special relevance for me, as a Spanish artist living in the Netherlands:

 

 

1)  The Leiden Siege (1574) by the Spanish Catholic army during the 80 Years War. The newly protestant city issued coins using the pages of catholic books as base material. Those printed pages are still visible in the coins.

 

 

2)   Surinam, 1760 – 1827, when the new Dutch settlement was starving due to natural disasters and social instability. After running out of metals the government issued money using existing playing cards.

 

 

3)   The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), when more than 7000 forms of money were issued by regional governments, big city halls, smaller municipalities, factories, trade unions, associations, cooperatives, small businesses, and even individuals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I see these historical cases as the formal antecessors of what today we understand as 'complementary currencies’. In the lecture-performances, photo-installations and essays related to this project, I use this three cases to discuss the role of money and its connection to:

 

a) Sovereignty and the creation of identity (Leiden).

 

b) The materialization / formalization of the ideological pillars of capitalism (Surinam).

 

c) Money as an institution that people can give form to in order to regain sovereignty, local economy and human contact (Spain).