Ceramic (piggy bank), paper
9.6x16.5x10.7cm
Unlimited edition
A pink piggy-bank with a sticker on either side. On one side we read: "one thing I learned since I was born"; this sentence is only complete when the sticker on the other side is read: "that I must die since I was born". This two-part text combines to form a brief memento mori which links the beginning and end of life both temporally and causally through the double meaning of the conjunction "since": "one thing I learned since I was born – that I must die since I was born."
But what is the link between the text recalling human transience and the symbolism of the piggy-bank? Does it relativize the significance of all things monetary? Or is it expressed by the piggy-bank itself, which – being ceramic – has be to "slaughtered" if the savings are to be retrieved?
The piggy-bank is the fourth and last element in a series of "Optimistic Boxes", originally planned to have fives. Nos. 1 to 3 are wooden boxes with a lid each containing an object and having a written label outside and inside. Each of them 'translates' a saying conceived by Filliou which, through being divided into two parts, undergoes a surprising change of meaning. The first three works were done in 1968/69, while this one here dates from 1981. In it, Filliou combines two ideas from the 1968 concept: No. 4, first planned as a small safe carrying the sentence: "it is great we are selfish – we can keep our money for ourselves", actually uses an inscription originally intended for a small wooden coffin.
All the objects in the series were produced in large numbers and – dispensing with the narrow structures of the art market – were distributed by the German Gallery VICE Versand. As unlimited multiples they ascribed to the ideal of "art for everyone".
