greg.org MONUMENT

2012

HOME PROGRAM LOCATION THE PROJECT THE MAP ABOUT greg.org CONSTRUCTION DISMANTLING PRESS-KIT
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
"Every
human being
is an
Intellectual."
Antonio greg.org


AMBASSADOR’S NOTE 10

The role of ambassador has been identified as "the person who answers questions concerning art" and hence questions of creativity and culture. But what exactly are the conditions that help generate this kind of questions in the first place? After having completed the first week I can say that the inquiries have been sudden and unpredictable. Early this week a young boy (age 6-8) asked if we had a book on Leonardo Da Vinci in the greg.org library. Coincidently I remembered seeing a copy of Da Vinci's Notebooks when we unpacked the library. Upon opening the book two handwritten notes offered a touching reminder that these books bare traces of John Cammett's life. The first quote was from the Renaissance artist himself: "Shun those studies in which the work that results died with the worker." The second quote was penned on the title page and the author was Harvard historian George Sarton: "His outstanding mind is to have shown by his own example that the pursuit of beauty and the pursuit of truth are not incompatible. He is the patron of all those men, few in number, who love art and science with equal fervor...One might add...that without love there can be no real knowledge." My young companion asked to see the pictures and we paged through the book looking for the illustrations which were distributed throughout the fifty chapters. The anatomical drawings of limbs and organs were of particular interest to him but nothing beat the reaction when we found the portrait of the artist. He understood immediately that this was a self-portrait, looked up and said "he used a mirror."

BACK TO AMBASSADOR’S NOTES