Lara Almarcegui
This work was made for Lara Almarcegui's exhibition at Secession, Vienna, in 2010.
Before the exhibition opened, the wooden floor of the Grafisches Kabinett was first removed and then replaced. A chronological series of photographs projected in the same room documents the process.From Secession: "A poetic work awaits visitors in the Grafisches Kabinett. Here, too, the artist has uncovered: in a quiet process concealed from the public, she has performed a Removal of the Wooden Floor / Abtragen des Parkettbodens, Grafisches Kabinett Secession and then reconstructed the floor. “The question was not so much: What can I do to improve a certain place?, but rather: What can I learn from this place?,” the artist says. What remains is the documentation of an almost invisible process and the recognition on the part of visitors that they are at—are standing on—the very scene of this process. Their attention is turned to what underlies it—it is no longer accessible—and to a process that has come to a conclusion and nonetheless remains present."