to the director of maam (rome), giorgio de finis (to be delivered by hand) / geneva, august 12th 2015 / dear giorgio, i’m happy to announce that, after ai weiwei, i’m finally able to go beyond the borders of my country! so having suddenly taken refuge abroad, i unfortunately can’t be with you. / greetings / mauro cuppone.

made in china / 2015 / lambda print, hotel beau rivage letterhead / 33 x 95 cm

dropping a han dynasty urn (to live and die in miami)

“the artist’s act of  dropping a han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) urn to the floor destroyed a symbol of 2000 years of cultural tradition and legacy / it expresses the notion that new ideas and values can be produced through iconoclasm (the purposeful challenging of traditional beliefs, or the destruction of religious icons) / the three eight photographs that record the artist’s performance form a work of conceptual art that captures the moment when tradition is transformed and challenged by new values.” / (caption at the pérez art museum in miami of the ai weiwei artwork “dropping a han dynasty urn”).

antecedent: ai weiwei breaks a han vase (true or false) / he exposes the sequence of breaks (true or false) in front of a batch of other vases (true or false) decorated by him (true or false) / a visitor enjoys the artwork of the artwork imitating ai weiwei, that is, breaking it (really) / i (really) photograph him and i (really) expose the artwork of the artwork to another artwork.

dropping a han dynasty urn (to live and die in miami) / 2014 /polyptych / lambda prints, newspaper

(white) colored vases

“this series consist of han dinasty vases original – one euro – made in china – colored miniature vases dipped in industrial white paint as if they were glazed / the faded richly patterned surfaces of the jars are concealed by the bright modern white, but the jars maintain their original forms / with the materials and shapes intact and only their surfaces changed, the vases challenge the viewer to consider questions about authenticity and the value and meaning of an original artwork.” / (caption at the pérez art museum in miami of the ai weiwei artwork “colored vases” ).

the artwork / operation performed on other artworks, is a hopeless ideological false / only the hope of an accident remains / can at least that be true? / If the only “reality” of the artwork consists in its destruction, then, aesthetically  speaking, the museum is a slaughterhouse, an (authentic) garbage dump yard of (false) potsherd / courtesy of a pérez  museum’s visitor.

(white) colored vases / 2014-2017 / miniature vases (2007 CE) and industrial paint