Felix Gonzalez-Torres at various places throughout the world

Artist: Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Venue: various places throughout the world

Exhibition Title: “Untitled” (Fortune Cookie Corner), 1990

Date: May 25 – July 5, 2020

Curated By: Andrea Rosen

Organized by: Andrea Rosen Gallery and David Zwirner

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Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of the participants; Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York; David Zwirner, New York

Press Release:

May 5, 2020 –– Andrea Rosen Gallery and David Zwirner are pleased to present a live exhibition of Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ “Untitled” (Fortune Cookie Corner) in various places throughout the world. This exhibition invites an international group of 1,000 people to each manifest the work as a “place” as part of one total “site” of this expansive exhibition. Invitees who choose to participate will be given a set of parameters specifically for this exhibition, thus establishing a fresh set of artistic interventions. (A copy of the invitation to participants follows, including core tenets of the work, guidelines for its manifestation, and questions to consider.)

Participants will initiate the installation in their “place” with between 240 to 1,000 fortune cookies. In addition to this decision, each “place” will decide the location and configuration of the pile, beginning on May 25, 2020. Individuals must be permitted to take pieces from the work, and the participants will regenerate their piles (back to the amount with which they started) halfway through the presentation, on June 14. The exhibition will end on July 5, at which point any remaining fortune cookies will no longer be “the work.”

The exhibition recognizes this unique moment in history and reflects the ever-relevant and flexible nature of the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Like many of Gonzalez-Torres’s works, including his candy works and paper stacks, “Untitled” (Fortune Cookie Corner) addresses the capacity for immortality through regeneration, heightened by the experience of loss within these works. As Gonzalez-Torres was interested in his work providing an opportunity for questioning, some questions that may be broached by this work and this exhibition were provided to participants.

Much of Gonzalez-Torres’s work asks owners, curators, participants, and viewers alike to engage with his oeuvre beyond the confines of an institution or gallery space. Here, each participant is asked to document the manifestation of the work throughout the course of the six-week exhibition, which may include the installation process, the work’s context, interaction with the work, and how the work ebbs and flows. This exhibition also addresses notions of audience and accessibility, and our understanding of public and private space. Documentation of this physical exhibition, “Untitled” (Fortune Cookie Corner), will be viewable on both Andrea Rosen Gallery’s website, under Live Projects, and David Zwirner’s website beginning May 25, 2020.

The Estate of Felix Gonzalez-Torres is co-represented by Andrea Rosen Gallery and David Zwirner.

 

 

CORE TENETS of “Untitled” (Fortune Cookie Corner), 1990 [and all Gonzalez-Torres candy works]:

 

The work can exist in more than one place at a time, as its uniqueness is defined by ownership.

An intention of the work is that it can be manifested with ease.

When the work is manifest, individuals must be permitted to choose to take pieces from the work.

The owner (or authorized borrower) has the right to determine if and how the work is regenerated during the course of an exhibition/installation.

The owner (or authorized borrower) has the right to interpret/choose the mode, configuration, and placement of installation for each manifestation.

The work exists even if it is not manifest.

A manifestation of the work is only the work if it is installed by the owner or in the context of an authorized loan.

An authorized manifestation of the work is the work, and should only be referred to as the work.

 

 

The curator / representative of the authorized borrower has made the following decisions for this manifestation of the work, for this exhibition. THESE DECISIONS ARE THE PARAMETERS SET FORTH FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INVITED AND CHOOSE TO PARTICIPATE:

1. The “site” of this exhibition is made up of as many “places” as those who have received an invitation from the authorized borrower and have chosen to participate by manifesting the work within these parameters.

2. This exhibition will begin on Monday, May 25, 2020. On this date, the fortune cookies used to manifest the work will become “the work.”

3. Each “place” will source and choose the fortune cookies that they use. Gonzalez-Torres stated that whenever possible, fortune cookies with optimistic fortunes should be used.

4. Each “place” will choose the amount, between 240 – 1,000 fortune cookies, that they will use to initiate the installation. In order to fulfill parameter 7 below, and in anticipation of potential interactions with the work, it will be required to order double the amount of fortune cookies used in the initial installation. (FYI: preliminary research indicates that 350 fortune cookies may cost approximately $30.) (Keep in mind that depending on your sourcing, given the current conditions, it may take a couple of weeks to order and receive the fortune cookies, and that each “place” is intended to install the work by May 25.)

5. Each “place” will choose a location in which to install the work, in a pile.

6. In accordance with the core tenets of the work, individuals must be allowed to take pieces from the work.

7. On Sunday, June 14 (halfway through the exhibition), each “place” will regenerate its pile back to the amount of fortune cookies used to initially create the pile, using the same type of fortune cookies.

8. Before and after June 14, the pile should not be regenerated.

9. The exhibition will end on Sunday, July 5. At that point, any remaining fortune cookies will no longer be “the work.”

10. It is requested that each participant document the manifestation of the work in its “place” throughout the course of the six-week exhibition. While we are interested in receiving whatever images each “place” feels are relevant or additive, it would be compelling to have representation of such things as: the installation process, the work’s context, interaction with the work, how the work ebbs and flows, and anything that might reflect variations among different “places.” (This approach to documentation is in line with the way the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation has represented each work by Gonzalez-Torres on its new website.) We request that these images be accompanied by: a record of the date each image was taken, to help establish chronology; photo credit for each image; the way each “place” would like to be listed for the project including city and country (“anonymous” is an option). (Video content is also of interest.)

It is understood that by providing these images, you are providing copyright-free permission for their use in online and print publications related to this exhibition, and for non-commercial use by the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, including on its website.

Please send documentation to: [email protected]. Andrea Rosen Gallery will process the documentation as well as donate it to the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation for future use. Andrea Rosen Gallery and David Zwirner intend to maintain active portals on their websites documenting this exhibition during its run. As these portals will be active and evolving, please feel free to send images on a rolling basis, or whenever it is convenient. We also anticipate a future publication for this exhibition.

Please feel free to post on Instagram or other social media platforms. While it will be a compelling part of this exhibition that people who were not officially invited may make and post piles of fortune cookies that relate to the exhibition (but therefore would not officially be the work), in order to indicate an official “place,” we ask that “places”/invitees use #FGTexhibition. We also ask that you tag @felixgonzaleztorres.foundation.

An ongoing aspect of the documentation of Gonzalez-Torres’s work has been to accumulate exhibitors’ firsthand experiences with the work. So at the end of the exhibition, please feel free to share feedback on your experiences as a “place,” if you so choose. Including such things as: potentially unexpected experiences; additional questions that may have come up for you (in consideration of or in addition to the questions posed below); factors considered in making decisions; how the installation did or did not change throughout the exhibition; etc.

11. Let us know if you accept our invitation to become a participant/“place” in the total “site” of this exhibition, and inform us how you would like to be listed in project records, including city and country (“Anonymous, City, Country” is an option), by writing to:
[email protected] by May 16.

In choosing to participate, you are playing many roles: a facilitator, a part of the total “site,” a viewer, an audience member, the public…

Link: Felix Gonzalez-Torres at various places throughout the world

Source: contemporaryartdaily.com