I Would Prefer Not To
@ M HKA, Antwerpen - Belgium
Gufram takes part to Nick Lodgers: I WOULD PREFER NOT TO, an exhibition that brings together various instances of refusal by artists to play by the implicit rules of the art world game. Absence as practice appears throughout recent art history, defining key moments in the work of Bas Jan Ader, Maurizio Cattelan, Thierry De Cordier, Marcel Duchamp, David Hammons, Jef Geys, Cady Noland, Panamerenko, Laurie Parsons, and Charlotte Posenenske, whose works appear together for the first time in this exhibition about denouncement from the context, culture, and place of art.
Each of these artists toy with subversive gestures, asking their audiences to take a step back and see artmaking within a wider, often more politicized context.
"I Would Prefer Not To"
@M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art,
Antwerp - Belgium
from 18 July to 15 September 2019
In the exhibition is showcased THE END WHITE by Gufram, an ironic epitaph created by Toiletpaper (Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari) to declare the “end” of the brand Gufram as well as to suggest a new beginning.
Maurizio Cattelan, plays with death and letting go in a comical way. In 2011, the artist announced his retirement from artmaking. At the same time, he remains a significant living sculptor, and retains commercial gallery representation. His retirement forces his audiences to consider the role of the artist as a job much like any other, and not as a calling or inherent, lofty need to create and produce. With this gesture, Cattelan asks why audiences so often see artmaking and the role of the artist as different from any other profession.
The work exhibited in Antwerp is THE END WHITE a version in "true-fake" Carrara marble with gold writing, created in 2016 to celebrate the brand’s 50 years anniversary.
THE END WHITE was added to the version in "real-fake" granite created by Toiletpaper in 2014 - obtained through the dripping of paint in 4 different colors. Today is also available the THE END BLACK: the new version is a Limited Edition 1/500 version in "real-fake" Marquina marble with gold writing: a noir and irreverent look that gives elegance to this tombstone that can be used as a seat with grotesque irony.