Tracking Happiness, a solo show by Romanian artist Mircea Cantor is on at Kunsthaus Gallery (Zurich, Switzerland) until November 8, 2009.
A young Conceptual artist influenced by Duchamp, Mircea Cantor challenges the way we routinely see things through subtle, almost imperceptible gestures. He employs photography, video, or art installation to create a fluid, ever-changing reality that evades categorization.
In this instance, Cantor addresses the traces left and deleted of a society whose history is recorded by computer communication and systems of surveillance. With scarcely any written records, and a higher risk of systems crashing down, of information being deleted, will there be anything left to remind future generations of the the way we lived?
To get a sense of the exhibition, watch the video. I just did and now I really wish I could fly to Zurich!
Jürg Lehni and Alex Rich, Empty Words, 2009.
You can see this work and others by the artists at the Swiss Institute ( 495 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York) beginning from September 19 to October 31.
Ola Pehrson, Yucca Invest Trading Plant, 1999.
In this installation, a computer software gathers data from a yucca plant through electrodes and transmitters and links them to an online source for stock trading. The plant is hence trained in the market economy and, depending on its success of investment, is rewarded according to its own vital values: water and light.
Lawrence Malstaf, Nemo Observatorium, 2002. A video of a simulation of a typhoon, to be experienced individually on a chair in the centre of the storm.
Helga Steppan- All My Things/white
Helga Steppan- All My Things/black
Helga Steppan- All My Things/yellow
From the See Through series, 2004.
Jorge Macchi, La Ascension. A collaborative with Edgardo Rudnitzky for the Argentine Pavillion, Venice Biennale 2005.
I think it’s quite a good thing to do, but it’s stupid for other people to do it, or to buy it from me. What matters is the feeling. I discovered it’s a great feeling to pick out a point on the map and to search for the place for three days, and then to find there are only two trees standing there, and a dog pissing against the tree. But someone who tried to buy that from you would be really stupid, because the work of art is the feeling, and he couldn’t buy that from me.
… … … … … … … .
I must say I don’t see how to sell these kinds of ideas. If someone can use them he can take them. Selling is not a part of art.
