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Architect, theorist, and artist Jorge Otero-Pailos's newest work, for sale at ArtWeLove, is an apt commentary on the pathos and tragedy surrounding the euro these days. As news was announced this week that Greece will need another 30 billion euros from creditors to make up for the recession and its budget cuts, Otero-Pailos debuted Drama, a 22 x 32" collage made of modern Greek drachmas that were in circulation before the switch to the Euro in 2002. Otero-Pailos erased some letters in "drachma" so that "drama" appears on the notes.

From ArtWeLove: Envisioned as the post-Euro currency, Drama anticipates the new world order while recuperating the pathos of the old Greek Drachma. Otero-Pailos explores a politically and culturally charged icon, which has returned to haunt not just the Greeks, but also the ideological foundations of Europe in Hellenic Classicism...It was not lost on us that Greece was the birthplace of theatrical classical drama some 2,600 years ago. Drama comes as a stunningly beautiful modern commentary on our current financial crisis and a reminder of what we owe to Greece, in this case, both the drachma and the drama, pun intended.

Otero-Pailos, an Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, wrote the introduction to our renovation/restoration/adaptive re-use issue this year. His "The Ethics of Dust" was exhibited at the 53rd Venice Art Biennale in 2009.