katyaev
(ekaterina vasilyeva)

___________ (RIEN) [nothing], 

​site-specific intervention (permanent) at New Space, Liege (Be), for the live performance Ne rien faire contre rémunération (2022)

paint and patina on wall, 

18 x 56 cm

2022

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​unique

Courtesy of Katya Ev

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ph Katya Ev, Jenaro, Maxence Derby

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This site-specific intervention was created for the live performance Ne rien faire contre rémunération at New Space in Liège. This  former garage of the judicial police still bears partially erased, ghostlike traces of its former use, including words painted in red such as "mise au point" [focus], "freins" [brakes], "prévenir" [to prevent], and "c'est gouverner" [is to govern], kept as remnants by the exhibition space.

 

The artist inserted the word "rien" [nothing] discreetly between "prévenir" and "gouverner", shifting the possible readings: prévenir c’est rien [prevention is nothing], or rien c’est gouverner [nothing is to govern]. The word was painted in collaboration with a restoration artist, using an aged patina technique to make it appear as if it had always been there.

 

The intervention also references the diary entry of Louis XVI on 14 July 1789—“rien”—marking the day of the storming of the Bastille. Produced in early 2022, at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the work evokes the tension between action and inaction in times of war.