Natasha Lelenco, Currency #139, 2023, Mixed Media

This piece belongs to the "Exchange Currency Series" created by Natasha Lelenco in 2023, starting from the concept of the "face" on coins. It is a unique work executed on a treated circular pine wood cut, created using mixed media techniques (acrylic, nails, staples, etc). The inscribed phrase, in Portuguese 'Nossos dias contados, nosos trabalhos um sopro de vento,' translates to English as 'Our numbered days, our labors a breath of wind,' borrowing a quote from the Epic of Gilgamesh. The inscribed phrase is in Latin and it says: I am very tired, I am 5000 years old. Natasha Lelenco, an artist of Moldovan origin, explores themes of foreignness and delves into the well-trodden subject of the value of art with this series. While conventional coins have a fixed value and typically depict a national figure, Natasha's coins showcase anonymous faces and offer variable, often arbitrary, selling values. These coins can function both individually and as panels alongside others from the same series, allowing for the creation of installations as vast as desired. Natasha Lelenco says of this project: "This series is about value and price. I propose to the public the acquisition of a currency as a transfer value only valid for future work of my authorship. This moving value, which has nothing to do with determining the value of the work itself (the currency itself), is decided, in addition to being completely arbitrary in nature, except for a reasoned valuation between the price of one currency and another. These currencies transfer the enhanced value of the artistic object for future work, deliberately leaving aside any symbolic overvaluation that derives from the creative work. However, each piece is a unique work elaborated with deliberate technical flaws, signed, and serves as a certification of original work. The norm is that the faces on currencies belong to kings, presidents of republics, or individuals who represent clear national identification. These currencies, by contrast, present a collection of anonymous profiles enveloped in disconcerting phrases that allude to the concept of a vast community of citizens who live in a state of 'not belonging,' characters who inhabit the depreciation that so often defines origins, laws, and inequality."