The Currency - Vinyl / 貨幣 - 黑膠唱片

2020
sound installation
12” vinyl, 5 min 32 sec / 10 min 57 sec
by Elom 20ce, Musquiqui Chihying and Gregor Kasper
work commissioned by Times Art Center
online listening ︎

The Currency is a vinyl EP whose golden colour is reminiscent of a wafer, one of the thin silicon discs used in the production of microchips. The rap song of the same name on the A-side is a collaboration between artists Elom 20ce, Musquiqui Chihying, and Gregor Kasper. The lyrics, in French, Mandarin, and German, offer a poetic exploration of various aspects of contemporary cultures and economies that are often overlooked or unnoticed: the entanglement of digital payment services in China (WeChat and AliPay) with the everyday lives of their users, whose every movement and action can be monitored by both the state and the market; the new currency, ECO, which is set to replace the CFA franc in eight West African countries by the end of 2020, marking a first step towards monetary independence for these nations; and the material foundations, such as the working conditions in the industry producing wafers and other electronic hardware, that are ignored by the widespread belief in a clean, free, and fair digital cloud.

The B-side features the sound piece The Hubs, a conversation with architect, anthropologist, and FabLab founder Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou. In the WoeLab “open hardware” workshop in Lomé, Agbodjinou introduced an alternative digital barter currency that relies on social activities and local services as a medium of exchange.

Installation view at Times Art Center in Berlin, Germany, 2020. Photograph by GR.Berlin / Times Art Center

The Currency
5 min 33 sec
Written and sung by Elom Kossi Khaunbiow & Musquiqui Chihying & Gregor Kasper
With a voice sample from Sum Sum Shen
Music composed & mixed & mastered by Alexis Hountondji
Produced by Centre Pompidou Paris & Times Art Center Berlin & Ariane Beyn

The Hubs
10 min 57 sec
Interview with Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou in WoeLab, Lomé
Voice recorded by Musquiqui Chihying & Gregor Kasper
Music composed by Elom Kossi Khaunbiow
With piano by Kamarou Dakodé & saxophone by Koffi Assimadi
Sound edited by Sum Sum Shen
Mixed & mastered by Alexis Hountondji
Produced by Times Art Center Berlin & Ariane Beyn

Recorded at Studio Colibri, Lomé & Medienwerkstatt im Kulturwerk des bbk berlin
Mixed & mastered at Studios Les Murs du Son, Saint-Michel-sur-Orge, Paris
Vinyl manufactured by R.A.N.D. MUZIK, Leipzig
Designed by xīzhuāng, Berlin
Made in Germany

The artists would like to thank: Edem Akuété, Rudi Apolle, Patrick Ayele-Yawou,
Max Bach, Celina Basra, Ariane Beyn, Farida Geraldo, Cathy Gicquel,
Pietro Della Giustina, Tatjana Günthner, Happylab, Sanid Jusic, Katharina Kasper,
Alicia Knock, Moonhee Kwak, Rosanna Lovell, Yung Ma, Manfred Miersch,
Nadja Opel, Caroline Schneider, Ilya Selikhov, Xi Bei, Zhu Xiaowen

This record has been produced in conjunction with the exhibition
Readings From Below, curated by Ariane Beyn, Times Art Center Berlin,
September 10 – December 12, 2020

Published by Sternberg Press, Berlin
Distributed by The MIT Press, Art Data, and Les presses du réel
ISBN 978-3-95679-578-7

Related Information ︎
︎︎︎ Sternberg Press
︎︎︎ Times Art Center
︎︎︎ Tagesspiegel
︎︎︎ basis

© 2024 Musquiqui Lab

The Currency - Vinyl / 貨 幣 - 黑 膠 唱 片

© 2024
Musquiqui Lab

The Currency - Vinyl / 貨幣 - 黑膠唱片