translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
190410: Luis Camnitzer
Daros Exhibitions
Luis Camnitzer
11.03.10 to 04.07.10
Touched by master hand, value increased
A stack of A4-format paper, each with an aphorism in its centre, to be stamped by every visitor at the exhibition and to be taken home for one Swiss franc per piece: in Luis Camnitzer’s “Self-service” (1996), visitors stamp the artist’s signature onto the paper, with aphorisms such as “Aesthetics sold, ethics wasted” or “The soul of art lives in the signature” printed on them. One can hardly expose the creation of the status of artistic work in a more beautiful way.
Camnitzer, born in Germany, grew up in Uruguay and now lives in the USA, has set standards in South America as a concept artist. Furthermore, he advanced to one of the most significant chroniclers of an artistic movement, of which he was, and still is, a part. In his book “Didactics of Liberation” (2007), he poignantly sets Latin American conceptual art apart from its more renowned pendants in the USA and Great Britain. It was not Marcel Duchamp, but the enlightener Simón Rodriguez and the Tupamaro city guerrillas who inspired conceptual art on the sub continent.
The exhibition at the Zurich Daros Exhibitions, where Camnitzer’s work from 1968 until today are displayed, presents him as a both witty and poetic master of art reflection as well as an expert for representational questions. Like the mold of a tiercet, a gold form presents itself behind glass “predefined by the connection of the outer points of the text, describing a form”. The form is such, as it is described. But yet again it is not, because it does not deal with the text but with the form.
Camnitzer is definitely not a formalist – firstly, because representational questions are anything but free of politics and secondly, because this is also valid for the questioning of art as a material effect of authorized and legal actions. A red woollen glove is suspended behind glass, and next to it is a letter by Camnitzer addressed to a handful of artist colleagues, asking them to wear the glove and then add their financial estimate for this action to a list. Ultimately, everything will be added up. “Like everything in the art market, the value of a glove is increased by the touch of the artist.” (Added Value, 1979)
By Jens Kastner
Daros Exhibitions
8005 Zurich, Limmatstrasse 268
Tel: +41 44 447 70 00
email: zurich@daros-latinamerica.net
http://daros-latinamerica.net
Opening hours: Thu: Noon – 8 p.m., Fri – Sun: Noon – 6 p.m.
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
190410
Daros Exhibitions
8005 Zürich, Limmatstrasse 268
Tel: +41-44-447 70 00
Email: zurich@daros-latinamerica.net
http://daros-latinamerica.net/
Öffnungszeiten: Do, 12 - 20 pm
Fr - So, 12 - 18 pm
Daros Exhibitions
8005 Zürich, Limmatstrasse 268
Tel: +41-44-447 70 00
Email: zurich@daros-latinamerica.net
http://daros-latinamerica.net/
Öffnungszeiten: Do, 12 - 20 pm
Fr - So, 12 - 18 pm