A WORK IN PUBLIC SPACE BY THOMAS HIRSCHHORN, PRODUCED BY DIA ART FOUNDATION NEW YORK
LOCATED AT FOREST HOUSES, THE BRONX - NEW YORK CITY, SUMMER 2013
“The play was about everybody talking at the same time and not being able to understand
each other, right?” asked one resident. “It was about money” asserted her friend,
adding beneath her breath something about the fact that Bloomberg should have been
here to see it, concluding with a resolute statement, “money is the problem.” Of
the multiple encounters that took place during the First Day of Gramsci Monument
it was this quick exchange, which happened inside the newspaper office as we looked
at the layout for today’s issue the one that expressively captured the civic character
of art. Others have said it before that art is a dynamic force that forms give-and-take
relationships between individuals by authorizing evaluation and thinking. Certainly
both observations are illuminating in that each relate to the “civic” by reflecting
concerns of everyday life: civil society and government. Furthermore, this inaugural
exchange pointed to the triangular relationship between government, architecture,
and despotism. Is the necessity for a reinvention of democracy a call for a reinvention
of architecture?
