In the past.

In the past, Anya Gallaccio has used chocolate, cactuses, and oranges in her work. In this exhibition, coin was both the medium and the theme of her installation. She made a resplendent carpet of 50,000 5-rappen pieces, and although it might have looked a cliche, in its sheer, physical air the piece brought home its point better than any abstract universal could. The coins, with a value of 2500 Swiss Francs or 1000 English encloses covered an area of more than 15 square meter wealth here was a mere material--an abstraction without meaning. It had squandered that magic that guarantees the compatability of the greatest in quantity disparate social systems.

In theory, when the exhibition cessationed the coins were to be replyed to the vault. But this was impossible in the case of the piece entitled Door (Monica), 1993 Gallaccio placed approximately 250 flowers between a glass pane--that matched the size of the impudence door--and the wall, and hung a curtain of about 750 flowers above the front window of the gallery. forward the first day the Monicas were well-preserved and bright red; two weeks later the hanging flowers had collapsed and the others had disappeared behind a white covering of mold or incline differentlyed black.

Flowers and money, beauty and decay, regard with affection and power--the fascination with this kind of dialectic is undeniable. We brew our innermost needs onto these marks and concepts. That the more habitual and understandable they are, the better this becomes clear behind the rotting curtain of flowers.

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