works currently shows at FRUIT AND FLOWER DELI NEW YORK 53 stanton
RAINER GANAHL, Ceci n'est pas une pipe ... / This is not a pipe ...
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.... ABOUT THE INFINTIE POSSIBILITIES TO EXIST... N'EST PAS?
"Ceci n'est pas une pipe" consists of a work of art made by annonymous, accompagnied by a certificate of negative authenticity and a personal note of how I received the artefact. All given parts constitute this specific work of mine entiteld "Ceci n'est pas une pipe".
Background: Over the years I have collected some art through trades and money. Confronted with the necessity that works Alighiero Boetti needed to be authenticated or "registred in an archive" I complied and contacted the archive. To my astonishment, some of the works in my possessions were rejected and serve here as the basis of this serie of mine, entiteld "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" - a title borrowed from Margritte's "treachery painting" from 1928 who so elloquently shows us that seeing is often a falsly believing.
I was fully believing that these "works" used now for my own art work were 'authentic' art pieces since they all are signed by the artists. I had no reason for any doubt.
asks interesting questions about "what constitutes an artwork"; "who controlls and defines it"; "what is the role of the market in this process"?
The implicit purpose of such an archive isn't only to document the amount of works in circulation but also to "reduce" it and to "eliminate local secondary and tertiary dealling". The same goes with the archive of Boetti. There, I was told by various people, that they too want to reduce the amount of art works in circulation and eliminate particularily those from Italian productions but which were orderd and signed by the artist himself. Boetti suffered from substance abuse and was in permanent need for money, hence was sometimes dumping his work for immediate purposes. There are lots of annecetods that circulate on this subject. In the case of the Beotti archive I was asked to pay 250 Euros which is also a nice sum of money and mentains the archive financially.
I see this "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" work of mine in relationship to those artistic productions who questioned authenticity in the late 1970s and1980s, in particular Sherrie Levine's "After Walker Evens". Of course, it is not so much the similarity that interests me but the differences. My work doesn' t use photogoraphies of exhibitions catalogs or copies. The works used are also not directly accused of being fakes - they just lack the OK of the archives based on decisions that are not made transparent. The Boetti's certificates state almost in a scholastic style that the work lack attributes that qualify for authenticity: "... non ci siano elementi sufficienti di attribuibilita all 'artista per poter procedere all'archiviazione dell'opera e al suo inserimento nel Catalogo ragionato inpreparazione" - ..."there are not sufficiant elements of attributability to the artist to include it into the archive and into the catalog raisonné." they also "invite" you to "abstinate" from showing the work "publicly as a work of Boetti" and "refrain from commercialize it" but they don't go as far as "confiscating it"
In the case of my "green painting" piece given to me as a . I did so and I was immediately informed by the at this piece had been confiscated and would serve in court as a proof for fakes. A couple of weeks later, or 2 weeks ago, I was informed that the piece will be reexamined and this time subjected to a color analysis.
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Last but not least, my work should make any Boettit collector feel uneasy and give them a taste for the small capricious difference between "something" or "nothing." Ceci n'est pas une pipe, isn't it?
NOTE: these pieces could be "destroyed" or "altered" with the simple acknowledgment by the artist in question or their legal representatives in charge of their 'archives" "as 'his' work" which would suddenly make these pieces or a collaboratoin or --- by destroying "rainer ganahl" --- again a simple " "Aleghieri Boetti".
This work will be on view in New York for a one person show of mine starting on March 25, 2008: monday: FRUIT AND FLOWER DELI, NEW YORK
PS: IF YOU ARE A COLLECTOR AND HAVE A PIECE THAT IS NOT ANTICIPATED : I CAN 'FIX IT".. BY MAKING IT A CECI N EST PAS UNE PIPE =- PIECE --- AT LEAST IT MAKES SENSE AGAIN, YOU CAN SHOW IT. .AND IT S A REAL --- FULLY AUTHENTICATED RAINER GANAHL !!! (You could call it "art laundry")
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Rainer Ganahl, Ceci n'est pas une pipe / This is not a pipe, Alighiero Boetti, Attirare l'attenzione /To attract attention, 1980s, 2007
click for hi res images
Rainer Ganahl, Ceci n'est pas une pipe / This is not a pipe, Alighiero Boetti, Attirare l'attenzione /To attract attention, 1980s, 2007
the work history i sign
Ceci n'est pas une pipe, Alighiero Boetti, Le infinite possibilita di esistere / the unlimitied possibility of being, 1980s/20
Rainer Ganahl, Ceci n'est pas une pipe / This is not a pipe, Il progressivo svanir della consuetudine / The progressive disappears from the familiar, 1980s, 20011
-- I just received this work in exchange for two drawings of mine. I was knew that it doesn t have the necessary qualities needed for the archive to authenticate it.
