A blog by reporter Migle Markulyte

Money. We think about it so much, but do we actually know what we need it for?

What is your first memory related with money?

Mine is crashing a piggy bank. Saving up day by day, waiting till it fills up with the coins that are secretly handed to me by my grandmother or the occasional pocket money that is supposed to be spent on candies... I remember dreaming about things I would buy and getting frustrated by it never filling up. Finally, after many ideas that changed over time about how the money should be spent, the piggy is slaughtered. The rattling metal mass is pouring out of piggy’s belly – a bag of grey and yellow coins, which were so precious then, hardly make a reasonable amount now. So many cones of ice-cream missed. At least my baby teeth were saved from cavity… 

“Inflation” - states the jury member, who was living in the street before this project brought him into the set of installation. We are sitting on the chairs, our feet are resting on the heap of sand, thousands of grains, which are reflecting in the mirror walls around us. The endless tunnels of parallel mirrors and countless reflections reminds me of the infinite possibilities of every moment. And the person in front of me, a real-life character which you could never expect to be an interviewer, is going to decide if I could be one of the lucky ones who will get a chance to compete for 15 000 euros. 

What would be the first thing you would buy if you got 15 000 euros?

Another participant, after sharing his memory about first pocket money spent on candy, confesses that he would get cigarettes and good wine.

Each participant is confronted with a question: what would you do, if you didn’t have to care about money for a year? 

As our conversation is evolving, I’m running out of the ideas and a realisation begins to dawn on me, that actually, I do not know. Would it really change my life? Can I imagine a reality in which money does not play a role?
Not yet. And maybe that’s why I care about it so much.

I am allowed to give one question to my interviewer.

I ask him why is he here.

He answers me that it was money that he needed.

Though, was it really?