Money and Dreams: Counting the Last Days of the Sigmund Freud Banknote (Art & Knowledge)

Between August 2001 and February 2002, the Austrian conceptual artist Rainer Ganahl, who lives and works in New York, created a series of drawings entitled Die letzten Tage der Sigmund Freud Banknote (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 Bücher.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.