The Office of Gravitational Documents #1963-1972
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82 x 58, 2017, retable en bois, verre, tampon, encrier rouge et documents :
• Transduction, Mel Bochner, 1969. Reproduction in Art by Telephone Recalled, catalogue de l’exposition, 2012
• Herald Tribune - Closed for holidays, 1963 – 1972, Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, 1963. Fac-simile, Collection Dieudonné Cartier
• Closed for holidays – Transduction, Publication Dieudonné Cartier, 2017. 9 x 14 cm, carte et enveloppe tamponnées, édition signée et numérotée de 10 ex. + 2 E.A.
• Closed for holidays – Transduction, Publication Dieudonné Cartier, 2017. 8,5 x 13 cm, carte tamponnée, édition ouverte. 48 x 65 x 10 cm, 2016.
In 1963, Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd published an advertisement in the European edition of The Herald Tribune: «Closed for Holidays, 1963 – 1972.»
In 1969, for the Art by Telephone exhibition at the MCA Chicago, American artist Mel Bochner read a paragraph of art criticism on the phone, instructing that the text be read to a contact in Italy who was to translate and read it to a contact in Germany who, in turn, was to translate and read it to a contact in Sweden who was to translate and read it to a contact in England. The cycle was complete when the Englishman telephoned the museum to read his final translation.
The Swedish contact was Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd.
Probably because he was travelling in Europe for «sun & fun»*, his own translation and the final English one arrived with difficulty to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art during the final week end of the exhibition, seriously compromising the Bochner piece and the entire display of his Transduction piece.
* Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd’s own words, taken from a letter to Jan van der Mark (curator of the Art by Telephone exhibition) from December 13th, 1969.