I am NOT Tino Seghal - a group exhibition at Nahmad Projects, London, UK
I will never say - a 6 hour performance by Dan Allon / curator: Francesco Bonami
Performance script, written by Dan Allon:
Gallery interior, throughout the day.
A 34-year-old artist is sitting on a sofa in front on a laptop. He is a white male, a little chubby, 1.75 meters tall, looks a bit tired and concerned. He wears dirty studio clothes, a pair of glasses and old snickers. He moves his feet up and down, seems cranky, as if he was playing a rhythm on the floor.
The movie he is watching is paused. It looks like a BBC documentary about the financial value of painting. He is staring at the laptop most of the time, regardless of a presence of another person at the gallery, seems preoccupied in an effort to understand the hidden narratives in the movie. He then offers a spectator to sit next to him, turn and says:
“I want to tell you about the night I bid 80,000 for this painting. I knew this painting would outshine its estimate. There was a lot of competition in the room. I knew it was a very important piece. Although there are so many of those paintings, I felt it was special. First, it is one of his LATE paintings. Out of those, only a few are signed! This is a complete <<later version>>, signed by the artist! I should make clear; I was not buying it for myself. I was buying it for somebody else. I will never say whom I bought it for”.
He then turns back and keeps staring at the paused movie.
AN ITEM ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: CLICK HERE.
EXHIBITION ON INSTAGRAM: CLICK HERE.
Thanks to: Francesco Bonami, Joseph Nahmad, Tommaso Calabro, Charlotte Call, Julia Lucerno, Julia Strebelow
Photos: Dan Allon, I Will Never Say, 2016. Courtesy of Nahmad Projects and the artist. Photo: Benedict Johnson.
Photo of catalog: Adi Levy