First published on ArtSlant.
Text by Robin Peckham.
Acconci Studio + Ai Weiwei: A Collaborative Project
8 May – 4 July 2010
Para/Site Art Space
G/F, 4 Po Yan St., Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
The latest culture-spanning, eye-catching curatorial endeavor by Para/Site resident director Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya purports to bring together two legendary figures: the poet turned artist turned architect Vito Acconci, and the son-of-a-poet turned artist turned architect Ai Weiwei. In reality, these two collaborators met for the first time just several weeks before the opening of this continually evolving, process based endeavor, making it less a two-person exhibition than an experiment in the nature and possibilities of collaboration itself. Now halfway over, it is impossible to tell whether the space will work towards an overarching or totalizing conclusion, or whether it will even continue to accumulate further “works” and other visual features at all; it is the exercise in indeterminacy par excellence.
The starting point for both contributing studios (Acconci Studio and FAKE Design, respectively) is a grid of one meter squares that covers floors, walls, and ceiling, apparently drawn on in permanent marker. Many such squares on the walls have already been filled by photographs of the artists on their joint visit to Hong Kong, audience members during their joint lecture, and scenery no doubt viewed during their joint excursions. A set of some half dozen black speakers are suspended from the ceiling in facing pairs, all of which repeat in intimate whispers the names of the participants: “Vito … Weiwei.” The center of the space contains a cubic frame of white tubing (one meter across each side, of course), which was apparently shipped to the gallery by Ai Weiwei in an accompanying cardboard box of strikingly similar dimensions. To one side, Ai has also contributed a wire model of the Para/Site space, faithfully if inexpertly representing every edge within the gallery. On site it is difficult to determine which elements come from which participating studio, making it unfair to interpret the collaboration as either a single project or the collected works of two artists. It emerges most significantly as the collaborative blog of two strangers with similar interests materialized in three dimensions: an interesting enterprise, no doubt, but perhaps one that relies unduly on the reputations of its contributors.