Money, in short supply due to the recession and yet some people still have pots of it, the American dollar – the phrase ‘in god we trust’, the title of the piece, appears on dollar bills – and the invention of the euro. Money, one of humanity’s extraordinary inventions, at the same time a condemnation. Artist and videomaker Yuri Ancarani has addressed the matter and presented his work on the subject at the Placentia Arte gallery in Piacenza last autumn. We asked Ancarani some questions about his work.

Why money? You have always dealt with other themes

I’m interested in contamination. Every day I see changes, metamorphoses of the landscape and the people that inhabit it. These transformations also arise from a meeting of different cultures. People with other customs are catapulted into a completely different reality in a matter of a few hours. The cultural basis for interpreting people’s behaviour is different, so they change and their points of view change too. I am not interested directly in money but more people’s attitude to money. I went to a party held by some Nigerians here in Italy, in Ravenna, in the provinces. These parties are open to everyone but the invitations that are put up in call-centres and bars near the station are written in English so they mostly go unnoticed. There are few whites at Nigerian parties, some of them have dyed hair, open-necked shirts and gold crosses and a young black woman at their side… At the end of the evening everyone is dancing and they throw money at each other. There is a precise reason for this but to me at the time, as an onlooker who didn’t know how the evening was going to turn out, it was some poor people in traditional clothes throwing banknotes like they were confetti. I didn’t have the cultural basis to understand the ritual but I still found it very interesting. At the same time, seeing all this money trodden on the ground, I gave it my own political/poetic interpretation, aware that it was probably forced. Money is the evil of the world, bits of paper that have lost their value. It’s the right way to treat money.

What relationship do you have with the Nigerian community and when is this ritual observed? Is it at weddings maybe?
I know a "tribal" leader who introduced me to part of the community at Ravenna. I’m working on a film with them. Just Nigerians, set on the Romagnola Riviera. The ritual wasn’t at a wedding, they throw money at each other at any party. In almost all the cities in Italy there’s a community of Nigerians, they often meet up with each other and have parties. In this case, the one we see in the video, it’s a party between tribes from Ravenna and Padova. The organisers of the party pay for it so those who are invited who drink, eat and dance give money to the organisers. The ceremony starts in an orderly way then in the end money is flying all over the place. They even threw money at me because I was holding a video camera, I was working and so I had a right to be paid. They behave like this because it brings good luck.

Why dollars?
Various reasons, the first because throwing 5 euro notes would be too expensive and less fun, then because the dollar truly represents money and power. Finally, as they were a British colony and they speak English, they feel a bit like Afro-Americans, in fact the young tend to go for a hip-hop look.