| Description |
n 2013, Dia Art Foundation commissioned Thomas Hirschhorn to build Gramsci Monument, an overwhelming, complex, and excessive outdoor sculpture that measured 8,000 square feet and was located on the grounds of Forest Houses, a New York City Housing Authority development in the Bronx, New York. On display for 77 days, with daily and weekly events organized by the artist, Gramsci Monument concluded Hirschhorn’s series of “monuments” dedicated to philosophers, which began in 1999. Grounded in the love of Antonio Gramsci’s work and life, specifically his fundamental concept of the ‘organic intellectual,’ this publication takes the form of a manual that details the complexity of creating an art work in public space, bringing together contemporary scholarship alongside accounts from residents, participants, and visitors.
Contributions by Lex Brown, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Thomas Hirschhorn, Kelly Kivland, Monxo López, Reinhold Martin, Tracie D. Morris, Fred Moten, Antonio Negri, Urayoán Noel, Marcella Paradise, Yasmil Raymond, Marcus Steinweg, Nadia Urbinati, and Philippe Vergne. Edited by Stephen Hoban, Yasmil Raymond, and Kelly Kivland. Published by Dia Art Foundation in association with Koenig Books, London.
"Manual"
Thomas Hirschhorn
My aim is to make a reference-catalog about the difficulty, the complexity, and the beauty of a work of Art in Public Space. A book that shows the artist's (my) ambition to make a new kind of Monument. A book that shows my insistence on the power of Art to provoke encounters, my belief in the resistance of Art and its power to not be neutralized by culture and consumption. The catalog will document the competence and ability Art can have in Public Space: To create a Form for Implication, for Justice, for Conflict, for Knowledge, for Universality, for Autonomy, for the Other, for Co-Existence, for Transgression, and for Love. |