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when you're adibas and you're dreaming of becoming adidas (a theatre play for europe)
theatre play written and performed on 5 euro banknotes
play written by nicoleta esinencu
2011-2013
the work is an uncontrolled performance consisting of a theatre play written on 388 5 euro banknotes. each line of the play was hand-written on a separate 5 euro bill (the most accessible banknote - people of all classes have equal chances to get hold of it). every bill is connected to the previous one, creating a chain of meanings, yet being comprehensive enough to stand and go around as a solitaire.
the play written specifically for this occasion and format by nicoleta esinencu, a moldavian playwright, takes as point of departure a recent scandalous story from nowadays moldavia when a father cuts his son's finger off for stealing money from his pocket. this fact is developed into a fictional - although reflecting the absurd reality, the psychology of money, the current monetary relations and the abstractness of the idea of finance and economy - and spectacular life career of this boy.
the play was activated through spending and letting the banknotes engage into circulation. thus, the script came alive randomly, when the bills were released out of control. anyone who got or will get a banknote (accidentally in a shop or elsewhere) and reads the sentence (out loud or silently) becomes a character in the whole scenario, a performer of a sequence from the whole text. each bill finds it's interpreter by chance, for an unpredictable duration, intensity, attention and interest. inevitably, the whole play is marked by ephemerality and short-liveness, eventually being withdrawn from circulation, disappearing in banks, safes, money shredders, wallets or trash.
when all the money is going to disappear (will be lost in circulation) the presentation of the banknotes will exist solely in the form of the book with scans of the bills - which were previously spent (performed) in order to accomplish and finish the work.
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