Inflation Art: How Venezuelans Turned Unspendable Money Into A Symbolic Artform

• Rovig, Jason ^[1] ; Chaparro, Andrés ^[2]
  1. [1] Founder and CEO, Art For Impact CPO, (https://jasonrovig.com/) is a creative social entrepreneur who transitioned from his medical career as a Certified Prosthetist Orthotist to focus on connecting marginalized communities and amplifying their voices in order to increase civic participation. He has been working with the Venezuelan migrant community through Art For Impact (https://artforimpact.org/) since 2018 to improve integration and reduce xenophobia. jason@artforimpact.org
  2. [2] Sculptor and visual artist focusing on the relationship between natural history and human culture. His work is featured in the Colombian National Museum and the Museum of Bogotá and was the winner of the 2018 Future and Biodiversity Award from the Humboldt Institute. During 2019 he conducted workshops with the OCENSA social program. Through his work with Riqueza Natural, he has experience running art-based workshops with indigenous cultures. (https://chapichapart.com/)
• Localización: H-ART Revista de historia, teoría y crítica de arte, ISSN-e 2590-9126, ISSN 2539-2263, Nº. 8, 2021, págs. 143-171
• Idioma: inglés
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Arte de la inflación: cómo los venezolanos convirtieron el dinero sin valor en arte simbólico
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    Algunos venezolanos han encontrado una manera de sobrevivir a la crisis económica de su país al crear obras de arte a partir de billetes que han perdido su valor por causa de la inflación, aplicando una forma modular de origami semejante a la empleada por el grupo de refugiados chinos que llegaron a Nueva York en el carguero Golden Venture en la década de 1990. La semejanza no es resultado de una conexión directa; lo más probable es que ambas prácticas deriven de la misma técnica tradicional de arte vernáculo originaria de China. Las artesanías venezolanas tienen de singular que se valen casi exclusivamente de moneda venezolana desvalorizada como material artístico. Este documento ofrece un estudio más detallado del desarrollo de este arte hecho con dinero en el contexto de la crisis migratoria y desde el punto de vista de Art For Impact, un colectivo que durante los últimos dos años ha trabajado directamente con los artesanos venezolanos que producen arte a partir de billetes en Cúcuta.

  • English

    Some Venezuelans have found a way to survive their country’s economic crisis by creating art from paper money made valueless due to inflation. They use a modular form of origami similar to that used by a group of Chinese refugees from the Golden Venture cargo ship in New York during the 1990s. The similarity is not the result of a direct connection; most likely both practices are based on the same traditional Chinese folk art techniques. The unique aspect of the Venezuelan crafts is that they almost exclusively use devalued Venezuelan currency as artistic material. This document provides a closer look at the development of this money art within the context of the migrant crisis through the perspective of Art For Impact, a social organization that has worked directly with Venezuelan money artists in Cúcuta over the last two years.