CARRIÓN, Ulises.

Flyer for Carrión’s installation at the Drents Museum: “De Diefstal van het Jaar, 3 t/m 7 Februari 1982.”

Coated paper with black & white illus. Assen, Netherlands: 1982.

The rare promotional poster for one of Ulises Carrión’s experimental public installations; the present copy is in particularly fine condition and has not been folded or creased. Entitled The Robbery of the Year, this exhibition was designed by the artist as a test of visitors’ self-restraint. A large diamond was placed on a cushion, without any enclosure but with a single spotlight trained on it, in an otherwise dark room. Visitors were invited to enter the room while a photographer took pictures of the space and the visitors. An expected theft failed to transpire, and near the end of the exhibition the photographer was withdrawn. Soon thereafter the diamond disappeared.

“De Diefstal van het Jaar [was an] exhibition of a diamond in which visitors are surreptitiously invited to steal the stone, raising interesting questions about viewing and stealing a precious object worthy of public exhibition and evoking images associated with museum heists, with subsequent analysis on issues such as the value and ownership of objects on display.”–Guy Schraenen, ed., Dear reader. Don’t read. (2016), pp. 44 & 164 (pictured).

On his series of public experiments, Carrión is quoted as saying: “In my work, I use all kinds of materials, objects, processes and people as formal elements. The final result is only partially determined in advance and the process that leads to that point is influenced by all the factors mentioned above. It is a game without fixed rules, and with no winners or losers.”–Guy Schraenen, ed., “We have won! Haven’t we?” (1992) p. 69.

In excellent condition.