In the spring of 2000, Jochen Gerz was invited as a visiting professor to the National Studio of Contemporary Arts Le Fresnoy. During this time, he initiated an exhibition of photography, inviting the inhabitants of this area close to the Franco-Belgian border to have, over one weekend, their portrait taken by young artists. They were to be both the models of the work, the participants and the collectors, since, after an exhibition showing all the photographs, each participant was to receive a portrait.
702 people from the cities of Lille, Tourcoing and Roubaix, as well of other areas in northern France and in Belgium replied to the invitation of a regional newspaper. At the end of the exhibition of all the portraits, every participant of The Gift returned to Le Fresnoy in order to receive as a gift their image. Yet to everybody’s surprise they did not receive their own photograph but the portrait of another person, a stranger, randomly assigned.
The starting point for this work was the change that the former popular sports and entertainment centre Le Fresnoy had undergone in order to become the National Studio for Contemporary Arts and the art school. For the local population the transformation seemed overshadowed by the loss of the very familiar site. Many people who participated in The Gift returned for the first time to Le Fresnoy since its transformation.
In a poor and popular area with a high unemployment rate, the work created a permanent 'public' collection of photographic portraits in private homes, which would otherwise not have become the site of contemporary art.
In the same year a second version of the work, Das Geschenk, was realized in Dortmund during “vision.ruhr". As a contribution to this exhibition, Gerz had a photo lab installed. Visitors to the exhibition were invited to have their portrait photographed by art students. 5000 people had their portrait done and again left with the portrait of a stranger to install at home.
A 3rd version of the work The Gift took place at the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, from 8/11/08 to 9/2/09, during the exhibition "Art of Participation - 1950 to now". Again, visitors to the exhibition were invited to have their portrait photographed by art students.
The museum, in collaboration with the Daily Examiner, offered 2,000 portraits which were distributed on the last day of the exhibition.
Object: 3 ads in the newspaper 'Nord Éclair', 500 posters (120 x 178cm), put up in the 87 urban districts of Greater Lille, 2 large banners (165 m2). Catalogue: All portraits appear in a 720-page catalogue.
See the publications page
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| © Le Fresnoy |
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Ostwall-Museum, Dortmund
@ Jürgen Huhn |
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