NEWS: Money Is a Virus

What you see there are a rendering of the AIDS virus (on the 200 Swiss Francs bill), of a skull (on the lower-right corner of the 1000), of an embryo (on the 100), and other similar motives. Think of having a fun dinner with friends at a nice restaurant, and then hand over to the waiter a 200-Francs bill representing the AIDS virus. Why someone would think that such images belong on banknotes, I can't really fathom. How exactly they relate to the theme "Switzerland open to the world", and how they would signal to the world that these bills as Swiss, also totally eludes me. And considering the history of Swiss banking, one cannot help but make the connection between the gold bar on the 1000-Franc bill (the gold of African dictators hidden in Swiss vaults) and the skull on the same bill (that of their victims). The jury was chaired by Jean-Christophe Ammann, the art historian formerly director of the Museum of modern art of Frankfurt. Here is, verbatim, what he had to say about Krebs' work (the jury chose it unanimously as the best one):

The chosen images are relevant and all address difficult issues such as AIDS. In addition to being very clear, the proposed designs are universal and will remain topical in the future. The sense of cohesion in this homogeneous series is very strong, with the themes moving from the macroscopic to the astronomical (from red blood cells to the universe) and the relationship between the obverse and reverse of the banknotes proving very perceptive. This portfolio is the type that breaks with tradition, offering an element of surprise. The semantic value is very pronounced.

Amman did acknowledge that:

The only point not in its favour is that certain images could lead to confusion.

And to the press he later said:

In Switzerland, money has a special status. It is a numbered, signed piece of graphic art.

At least on this point, one may agree with him. Bills aren't just money: they're a representation of a country, a rendering of its identity, they carry emotions. As the Neue Zurcher Zeitung wrote (that's the best Swiss daily newspaper and the one read by bankers): there is an eroticism of money. This new design has none of that: it's a, nonsensical, uninspired, slightly repellent exercise in condescension.

Think of having a fun dinner with friends at a nice restaurant, and then hand over to the waiter a 200-Francs bill representing the AIDS virus.

How exactly they relate to the theme "Switzerland open to the world", and how they would signal to the world that these bills as Swiss, also totally eludes me.