Supply & Demand: domanda e offerta. “To supply”: to provide, to satisfy, to feed. “To demand”: to request, to claim. Transitory, Hell Bank, and Metrò—the three new works Marianne Heier created for the exhibition—together with the action Tutto è acqua se guardi abbastanza a lungo, speak of the value of money, its relativity, and its nature as a social convention that refers not only to the exchange of goods and services but also, indeed, to values—a means of recognition and communication within a community.

Marianne Heier compares three different economic models present in Europe (and in Milan), in which the value of money and economic negotiation between people take on different meanings: three different systems of “supply and demand” and of utilitarian and symbolic relationships with money, ranging from high finance to the Chinese community, to the Romani community.

Transitory is a video interview with a young financial consultant from one of the most influential banks in London’s City. The interviewee answers a series of seemingly simple questions from the artist, concerning basic principles of economics as well as personal matters. The answers reflect an institutionalized reality and a clear, pragmatic view of the market.
Underground is a sound installation composed of a series of phrases used by the Romani people to beg for money, recorded in the Milan subway. Often memorized, these chants are designed to last the time it takes to travel from one station to the next. Small performances in which gestures, timing, and tone of voice are recurring and recognizable elements that lose their actual meaning in favor of pure sound.

Hell Bank is a research project the artist conducted on the Taoist ritual of burning money in honor of the dead. Publicly practiced in China, the ritual in Europe is strictly reserved for members of the Chinese and Vietnamese communities. The artist sought out individuals willing to include her in the practice and to be filmed. The outcome of this research is documented in a video and a booklet. These documents convey not only the difficulties encountered but, more broadly—and with a light, ironic tone—the linguistic and cultural differences and the tensions that divide a community from what it considers foreign.
Tutto è acqua se guardi abbastanza a lungo is a performance in which the public can donate money, collected by a few volunteers, that the artist will give to UNICEF for its program providing drinking water to areas of the world affected by disasters. With 43 Euro, it is possible to make 320 liters of water drinkable.