Found Objects is an NFT collection made of photographs of found coins. Each coin found is inventoried into a collection, and each NFT is accompanied by its matching physical coin.

The photographic series started in 2008, evolving into what would later become a documentation, in real time, of the transition from the Fiat Monetary System into the new era of digital Decentralized Finances (DeFi).

It takes its name from artist Marcel Duchamp’s definition of the “Found Object”, as these coins represent “small insignificant objects with no value or meaning”. Once stripped out of their face value, they can be easily “re-valuated” as artworks and attributed with multiple meanings and interpretations of their symbolism.

In 2021, NFTs became the perfect media for this series. Creating an NFTs collection from these photographs equals to “REMINTING” Fiat Currency into Cryptocurrency. By associating its original face value (0.1 USD) with the single unit value of a Cryptocurrency (0.1 BTC), the coins absorb the Cryptocurrency’s higher value as a “token” for Art value.

Usually, art is valued through money. Found Objects, however, reverses this valuation process and instead values money through art. Building a collection of disappearing fiat currency and replacing its face value with “art value” via Cryptocurrency, adds up to the illusion of their uniqueness, now that they have been “rescued” by Art and repurposed as artworks.

The photographs evoke nostalgia for past times of high moral and institutional standards. Some coins appear fresh and shiny, as they were recently dropped; others, surrounded by abandon ruined trashy landscapes, where the magnified coins appear deteriorated, eroded, decomposing under a prolonged exposure to the elements. The system of values they used to represent is now decaying and bound to disappear. These photographs offer an insightful view charged with meaningful symbolism of the transformations the World Financial System is undergoing into the future.