Artist : Gian Maria Tosatti
HomeLand is a commissioned project by artist Gian Maria Tosatti. The exhibition interrogates the functionality of institutions. Taking as a starting point 1950’s McCarthyism, the work explores the violent contradictions of American identity and society. It analyses the discrepancies of a country where privacy violations and nonobservance of human rights continue to be primary political issues.
The site is temporarily repurposed. Turned into a useless, uninhabited office, a deficient public sphere. As both overseer and overseen, the viewers is uniquely positioned to examine the thematic of freedom and surveillance. By modifying the previous perception and signification of the site, HomeLand aims to challenge the notion of our roles within institutions.
Tosatti, who mainly works with abandoned spaces, expands his practice with this project by manipulating the Hessel Museum of Art gallery itself. The neutrality of the half functioning office transports the viewers into another dimension, not quite identifiable. In the project, space materializes as a medium of confrontation between site and viewer. The installation operates as part of the public sphere, a space where subjects confront themselves and each other. Expanding upon—and perhaps ultimately leaving behind—the paradigm of institutional critique, HomeLand questions the role of institutions today and their relationship to individual subjects.
Curated by Cloé Perrone
