With Arthur Duff we are the work of art – Venice

Venezia – There is a subtle and invisible bond that connects James Lee Byars a Arthur Duff.
A magical and indefinable place that takes shape after twenty years again in the lagoon, still in Venice, and which speaks of the relationship between art and the viewer, between the essence of human beings and their projection into reality. A recreation, an enchantment, which does not necessarily follow rules and precepts, but which reveals the secret of the world.

Visiting Arthur Duff’s “non-exhibition” on 14 April in that strange place with a very complicated name that is the House of The Human Safety Net at the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco in Venice I thought back to the story my brother told me of his last meeting with James Lee Byars. The great American artist had not received any official invitation to the 1993 Art Biennale, the centenary year of the event. Luca Muscarà recalled: “On the first day of the preview, when I was among the first to enter the gates of the Gardens, James Lee was there to welcome us. Completely dressed in gold, with a ritual gesture he delicately gave each visitor a tiny golden coin in tissue paper, on which, in microscopic dimensions, the phrase was printed: “Your presence is the best work”… your presence is the best work of art”.

So when Luca Massimo Barberocurator of theArt Studio – that is, that space where art dialogues with society in the framework of the Foundation desired by the insurance giant Generali which has transformed 12 thousand square meters into the house of hope and connection for the least and the derelict (but in a positive and productive key, as they teach the five Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations to which the institution adheres) – in the unusual and informal inauguration of the installation The Hungriest Eye. The Blossoming of Potential of Arthur Duff, when we said at a certain point Barbero came out stating that we spectators, we visitors were “the work of art”, the circle has closed.

So Epiphanies. But also game. Because the essence of this work site-specific it’s all here. A way to engage the public which becomes an active engine in the creation of a work of art that is ephemeral, unrepeatable, beautiful.

Yes, because to understand what we’re talking about, the only way is to go to the Procuratie Vecchie e go up to the third floor to immerse yourself in the experience. The journey is worth the candle. First of all, because it allows you to discover a very modern and impossible restoration that only the combination of a titan of finance, a genius of architecture and a once enlightened superintendence has made possible: the transformation of a building of “exceptional historical and monumental importance” to fragile and untouchable for a long time in a wonderful new truly contemporary space in the heart of the most traditionalist city in the world. Venice indeed. And it is no coincidence that among the reasons for the Pritzker Prize 2023 assigned to David Chipperfield there is also this masterpiece.

But in addition to the marvel of this discovery that will delight architecture lovers (the House has been open for a year – ed.) there is something more. Duff’s work integrates and completes the itinerary of the permanent exhibition A World of Potential, an interactive and immersive experience to understand and connect with one’s potential, exploring strengths and discovering the best qualities in ourselves and in others, also through the stories of The Human Safety Net beneficiaries, operators and volunteers An exhibition which in itself is somewhat didactic and didactic, but which if taken in the right direction – that is, that of discovery and amusement – can be fun and entertaining. I won’t explain more, also because among interactive butterflies, cranks, balls suspended in empty tubes moved with the power of the mind and somewhat Swiss self-representation questionnaires, one would risk losing the sense of this machine for telling stories and which in intentions of the curator Orna Cohen serves precisely to give a description of the objectives of the Foundation that hosts it. It’s a playground exactly and the boys of the House will support you, without hesitation.

Coming to the work of Arthur Duff here is this an icing on the cake. Because it just seems like at the end of the day, you, the audience, are the gist of the story. The artwork.

You enter one dark roomwhere by scanning your ticket (which I have not explained to you is essential to play with the previously described world of potential) something beautiful, magical happens.

Inspired by the ancients manuals of Japanese fireworks of the sixteenth century, Duff created a wonder machine, a projection system – by means of colored laser light beams – which gives shape to “your potential”. A few moments of virtual representation of the inexpressible. Geometric shapes, each one different from the other, in a game that doesn’t matter if it’s casual or causal but which should be the visualization of the potential, therefore perhaps of the ineffable essence, of the beholder. Our. Of you. That you will be able to transform yourself from spectators into works of art. Conceptual, geometric, in motion. Certainly ephemeral. Surely also spiritual, if you want to allow yourself to explore this other than yourself. Or at least the concept of him.