Tweeluik van perspex met Nederlandse bankbiljetten 1980 - 2001

Curator: I'm drawn to the almost shrine-like presentation of these banknotes in this diptych from the Nederlandsche Bank collection, titled "Tweeluik van perspex met Nederlandse bankbiljetten." Dating from 1980 to 2001, it seems to be preserving them like artifacts. Editor: Yeah, there's definitely something precious about the way they’re displayed—almost like encasing a memory, a ghost of economies past, in clear perspex. Gives you this cool, detached feeling, like staring at an old fossil but it's, like, money. Funny, isn’t it? Curator: Exactly! It's interesting to see how this art reflects a broader trend within conceptual art—this piece being a potent blend of photography and appropriation—and how institutions like banks play a role in shaping cultural memory. It is less about the money and more about how images operate in culture. Editor: You’re right. But it also speaks to a sort of wistful beauty these guilders possessed, at least compared to the euro. The design, those colours... Like faded postcards of a country you maybe never visited, yet you sort of *know* because your parents used them once upon a time. Maybe that’s why the bank has kept them around, more than historical accuracy… Curator: Nostalgia for a lost national identity definitely resonates, although from an institutional perspective, it might serve as a means to communicate stability and trustworthiness – linking past economic credibility with the present. Conceptual artworks often use familiar items to question underlying power structures and economic conventions; do you think this work subverts anything, ultimately? Editor: Oh, 100 percent! This isn’t just some sterile display. Those layers of plastic kind of soften what cold, hard cash *really* means. This isn’t about transaction fees. It makes them like aesthetic objects instead; it reframes currency, questions its value. Is it really ‘art’ once removed, put behind glass? I think so, yes. I wouldn’t take this artwork and pay with it anywhere... or maybe, it depends, but this work really makes you reconsider things we might never have considered reconsidering. Curator: Indeed, a powerful thought! It also encourages us to contemplate the roles that institutions like the Nederlandsche Bank hold in influencing the values associated with monetary objects. The piece underscores both the aesthetic potential and the inherent politics in everyday items, and offers us more layers as time goes on. Editor: Totally. And hey, at least it’s more visually interesting than my bank statement.