The absence of the artist is present
performance / photography, 2014
Inspired by Marina Abramović’s “The artist is present” and Piero Manzoni’s ”Base del mondo”, I offer the presence of my absence as performance art. By displaying the image of a place where I am not, I make my absence present at the specific place and time the image was produced. To document my absence I collaborate with Google, which has been keeping track of my absence since 2007 and making it available through the Street View tool.
I can only be present at one place at a time but my absence can be simultaneously present at all other places on the planet, and beyond to outer space. Thus this is performance art at a cosmic scale, the largest work of art ever created.
installation at the Michigan Institute of Contemporary Art, 2014
A selection of ten images of my absence were displayed at the Michigan Institute of Contemporary Art (MICA) in Lansing, Michigan, from May 3 to 30 in 2014. These images are but a small sample of the work, available in its entirety at Google Maps.
