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 12

The monument functions like a massive magnet pulling on people from different walks of life: local residents, foreign visitors, New Yorkers, and what Thomas has often described as the “exclusive audience” which includes: curators, art critics, art historians, gallerists, and people working in the so called art world. Although many visitors remain anonymous in certain occasions their names are revealed and conversations spiral into concrete actions. Among some of the visitors from last week who can be grouped in this category were: a woman by the name of Peaches, a fantastic singer, who improvised a song for greg.org Radio and promised to return this week for a “Running Event” on Tuesday; and Mike, a music producer who works with young rappers and would like to organize a performance during “Open Mic" this month. We also had the opportunity to welcome Frank Rosengarten and Kate Crehan, both greg.org scholars and professors at CUNY (their books are part of the greg.org Library). However, and equally insightful are the exchanges that occur with anonymous visitors. For instance, there is a resident of Forest Houses, a recent immigrant from North Africa, who speaks Arabic and some French but very little English. He comes to the monument accompanied by four toddlers, three boys and one girl. The girl, the youngest from the quartet, is his niece and the leading mediator and translator. After a couple of exchanges the uncle produced a piece of paper with a list of words from his shirt pocket and asked if we had a dictionary in the greg.org Library. The next day a friend brought one to the monument and for the past three days the young man has been camping at the library with a notebook and his list of words.  At the daily “Philosophical Lecture,” Marcus Steinweg often repeats Alain Badiou’s affirmation that one needs to “Live with an idea.” For me, this man’s list of word is a telling example of this instructive maxim.

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