~URS FISCHER/YOU/Gavin Brown’s enterprise/thru/NOV 24
URS FISCHER – YOU – Gavin Brown’s enterprise
OCTOBER 25 – NOVEMBER 24, 2007
Gavin Brown’s enterprise – 620 GREENWICH ST at LEROY – WEST VILLAGE – NYC
note: the show has been extended thru DEC 22, 2007
URS FISHER actually tore up !! the WEST VILLAGE gallery, that is the gallery floor, removing tons of concrete. and leaving the raw remains as the exhibit to prowl, ponder and .. most definitely … MAKE HISTORY. if you are in New York, and you miss this – you’re are a real loser. It’s the most exciting thing to happen on the art scene – since the RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA/GORDON MATTA CLARK installation at Zwirner last Spring – except it’s the real thing ! – not a reconstruction. if you miss this, the first time around, – never !! let anybody know – you’ll never be able to live it down !
no wonder Gavin is grinning.
. . that’s legendary dealer TONY SHAFRAZI on the left, mega mega collector PETER BRANT, center, and GAVIN BROWN, on the right at the opening. Tony Shafrazi and Peter Brant were asking Gavin how he talked his landlord into letting him do this . ….
Supposedly they had a backhoe in there, that they got into the building, through the street facing building-high windows. we believe that ! Gavin had the gallery clamped down tight, during the excavation – but rumors were flying about major site construction, or rather deconstruction, as it turned out – as tons of concrete and debris, being stockpiled up for removal was observed all week preceding the opening. and then, wow – what a shock!
The gallery entrance was totally re-constructed. Visitors have to first stoop down and pass through a small entry way – just like Alice in Wonderland – so you couldn’t see the scope of the work – until you got through that tiny entrance and then there was a rocky anteroom and then, there was: boom – this amazing raw deconstruction – that looked so huge, it was hard to remember the scale of the gallery beforehand. It was also completely raw. and you really needed hiking boots. (they are going to have some serious issues with crowd control – better get there as soon as you can – before word gets, out, mainstream – it’s also quite realistic to imagine that the site might actually get shut down due to an actual injury/or the site crumbling down altogether – to the extent that entry does really become – way too dangerous!)
in fact, there was an innocuous typed sheet of regular white copy paper that stated: “IMPORTANT NOTICE TO GALLERY VISITORS” – attached to the entrance wall, which read:
“This artwork installation by Urs Fischer has intentionally been left in a raw and unsafe condition, with no provision for safe entry/exit or safe proximity.
The installation is physically dangerous and inherently involves the risk of serious injury or death. Access is granted to you entirely at your risk.
By approaching or entering the installation you assume sole responsibility for any and all risk of injury, death or damage, and you release the gallery and the artist, and all persons or companies affliliated, associated with, or acting on behalf of either of them, from any and all liability.”
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH, OCT 25, 2007
more photos from the opening to post – next week.