VAvoomvoom - group exhibition @ Galerie UM, Prague (CZ)
25.5.-15.7.2023

 The Last Minute Intervention was completed for the group exhibition “VAvoomvoom!” literally in the last minute — approximately 30 seconds before the doors were opened to the public.

The installation consisted Milan Kundera’s 1998 book “Identity”, loosely sealed in a sterilized bag.

Only two days after the exhibition opened, the bag and the book were gone. However, the name tag remained on the exhibition structure. Galerie UM did not notice that something was missing — even though the gallery space is constantly monitored. Something that was once static and visible suddenly became a gesture circulating between presence and absence.

The book, not even my own, was loaned from a friend, as I was suffering from a terminal illness.

“But Jean-Marc was telling the truth: he did not remember. Besides, he was not even trying to search his memory. He was thinking about something else: this is the real and the only reason for friendship: to provide a mirror so the other person can contemplate his image from the past, which, without the eternal blah-blah of memories between pals, would long ago have disappeared.”

-Milan Kundera, Identity (1998)