I Sign Your Signature
CR 31. Year 1972
Here the artist combines two semantic forms of postmodern art, extending them into the non-artistic realm: on the one hand, an artist's signature is considered a key to interpreting their work, including constructing a socially relevant framework and putting it firmly in an artistic context legitimised by the artist and their signature. On the other hand… members of the public were not just to be invited in but to become active participants.
Marion Hohlfeldt 2015
The experiential value of individual engagement with artworks is supplemented by a social moment whereby the question of a collective creativity and authorship comes to the fore that places the focus more on the process than the product. Gerz’s work allows for the exploration of an expanded experience of the effect of art when the art is manifested without a work of art (but with an effect).
Paolo Bianchi 2016
Categories
Keywords
Performance
Table, 2 chairs, 2 fountain pens, stamped sheets of paper (green ink), each 24 x 32 cm Duration 40 minutes
Jochen Gerz and a visitor sit face to face. They each write their signature on a sheet of paper, then exchange sheets and sign the other’s signature.
Two editions of the same title are realized on the basis of the performance (773, 777).
Realisation
Paris 1972
Bibliography
I: Darmstadt 1973, pp. 135-143. Karlsruhe 1975a, p. 124. Paris 1975a, p. 56. Bielefeld 1981, pp. 10, 94. Zürich 2000, p. 119