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
Understanding that an artwork placed in open air is vulnerable to weather conditions,
a visitor asked what happens when it rains. Apart from a couple of roof leaks here
and there, the fact is that during raining days, the monument reconquers its interiority
and reconfigures itself as a structure where people take shelter with the difference
that once inside you are explicitly contributing to a concrete experience. It is
striking to see how rain intensifies productivity at the monument. The other day
for example, we woke up to torrential rains and I arrived to the site expecting a
quiet day only to be surprised by the bustle. Attendance at the Workshop doubled
by the afternoon and children were pairing at each computer station in the Internet
Corner. In the newspaper room we produced the new issue and by midday were already
gathering material for the following one and in the Radio Station, DJ Gucci welcomed
a couple musicians and rappers, including three first-time visitors to the monument.
And it is on the basis of such occurrence, or more precisely, these activities and
events that we invent together rain or shine, that the monument generates an impermeable
dynamic, a commonality.
