katyaev anton
(ekaterina vasilyeva)

Image 2: view of the exhibition Point Zéro, Galerie Chloé Salgado, Paris (Fr), 2019; on the right - wall lettering; on the left - contract (score) of the performance

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fictional dialogue between a visitor and a museum guard-performer, based on live performance at Zadkine Museum, Paris, France

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The wall text translates as follows:

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(LE PLUS OBJET DES OBJETS)

 

– Excerpt from a dialogue at the museum –

 

[…]

 

Exhibition room. One guard is seated at the back of the room; a second is standing to the left of the entrance. A visitor enters the room.

 

Guard (in a neutral tone, blocking the way): You should go to the left, sir.

 

Visitor: Ah, sorry. (changes direction)

 

The visitor moves forward and takes a step closer to the work. The other guard stands up.

 

Guard: Please, sir (hand gesture), not so close.

 

The visitor steps away, embarrassed.

 

Guard: This work should be viewed from here. (points to a spot)

 

The visitor takes a step back and continues looking at the work. The guard remains very close to the visitor, slightly behind his back, to his right. He steps back, and continues staring at the visitor.

 

Another guard crosses the room.

 

Guard (walking, absent-minded): Notes are forbidden, sir.

 

Visitor: Excuse me? (makes a gesture with his left hand, looks at his notebook and at the book to which a pen is attached) Why?

 

Guard: I understand. I am going to ask you to put this in your bag, please. (continues walking)

 

The visitor follows him with his eyes, turns around, and meets the gaze of the seated guard.

 

[…]

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“One of the key operating parameters for (Le Plus Objet des Objets) is stealth. [...] Visitors (invited to for the performance to the evening opening) could see no stage or performers—nothing that pointed to anything answering to the event; no visible trace, in fact, of something that to all appearances seemed not to be taking place. [...] Katya Ev’s set-up replaced and augmented all of the invigilating and supervisory staff who would normally work at the reception desk, the security station outside the galleries and, as attendants, in the exhibition galleries themselves [...]

 

(Le Plus Objet des Objets) addresses the opacity, arbitrariness, and secrecy of the rule-governed orchestration of museum or gallery space. It foregrounds the overriding mechanism of control by which these zones are ordered and disciplined: that of surveillance. To this end, it magnifies and italicized the consequences of the coercive regimen by giving rise to counter-manding episodes fraught with humor, parody, contradiction and even intimations of punishment. Above all the project reveals the contours of the manufacture of consent by way of conformist obedience—a declaration more remarkable because most of the museum-going public would never imagine that their volition could be short-circuited or deferred.” John C. Welchman, En Garde, cat. ‘From Scratch to Scratch’, Ghent (Be), 2020 more >>​​

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​​​​Credits

Copyright: Katya Ev