The reading knots

At the beggining of my trip to Paris, two weeks ago, I went to the Centre Pompidou. For my surprise, at the contemporary art collection, a Zilvinas Kempinas work was on show as a recent aquisition. I've been interrested in him since the moment I saw a video of one of his works on the internet a bit more than a year ago, than, after that, at SPARTE (São Paulo's Biggest art fair).

Zilvinas is an emerging artist and the fascination that his works created in me, and as I see creates in other observers, comes from something very simple and, probably because of that, it is so fascinating in our so overwhelming times. The works consist of placing rings made out of vhs tapes on front of fans, and they simply dance on front of it, floating in thin air, creating a fascinated and somewhat skeptical position from the viewer when trying to understand how something that is so simple, although so breathtaking, can work without any hidden tricks. It is probably the magic of truth, and maybe that is what makes these works so amazing. So truly fascinating without the spectacle and without "tricks".

On another occasion, about a week ago, I went back once again to the Centre Pompidou and saw again Zilvinas work. For my surprise there were, apart from a lot of other people seeing this sculpture, three brazilians behind me telling to eachother: "wow, I don't believe this! This has to have some strings or something to keep it floating in the air", "I hope it falls!", "I think it will fall off at some point!". And to my surprise, the ring didn't fall but it started to produce a knot within itself. I could clearly see this "event" creating strong manifestations in people around me. Some cheering for it to fall, some cheering for it to remain floating. I could clearly hear the "uhh" and "ahh" when the ring at some times, already with the knot, almost fell down, almost as if I could see people watching a football game, the passionate cheerings from each side.

I started than thinking about this point being some sort of a culmination in the work. Almost as if it had suddenly, from a work which was clearly suspended in time, turned into a narrative, unfolding all the different vectors of action into that moment.
Although, as I believe, this was not in the artist's intentions, not only the readings of it, but the work itself produces situations and new significations that not even the artist himself is entitled to go against.

When the woman from the Centre that was working close to the piece saw what was happening she called another colleague to help her solve the "knot problem". So they pulled down the ring to the floor, sat down, and started trying to undo the knot. No suspension of time, no aesthetic fruition, no magic: just two girls trying hardly to undo a knot. But, for my surprise, people around me were, for some time, fascinated by that little rare spectacle of Zilvina's work's failure! And a new layer of reading was than added to the piece in my mind: it had become performative. Almost as a stage without courtains, you could see the prosaic matters of this theater taking place, and at some point it spoiled the magic, but to another it made the work even more breathtaking. I couldn't stop watching that scene, as the people around me, and I never thought I would be in Paris just seeing two girls undo a knot.

This made me think a lot about, not just the performative aspects that a work can assume by itself, but the limit to which the artist stops having power over the reading of his works.