Thomas Hirschhorn ― Deleuze Monument

Part-text, part-sculpture, part-architecture, part-junk heap, Thomas Hirschhorn'soften monumental but precarious works offer a commentary on the spectacle of late-capitalistconsumerism and the global proliferation of commodities. Made from ephemeral materials -- cardboard,foil, plastic bags, and packing tape -- that the artist describes as "universal, economic,inclusive, and [without] any plus-value," these works also engage issues of justice, power, andmoral responsibility. Hirschhorn (born in Switzerland in 1957) often chooses to place his work innon-art settings, saying that he wants it to "fight for its own existence." In this book,Anna Dezeuze offers a generously illustrated examination of Hirschhorn's DeleuzeMonument (2000), the second in his series of four Monuments.Deleuze Monument -- a sculpture, an altar, and a library dedicated to GillesDeleuze -- was conceived as a work open to visitors twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Partof the exhibition "La Beaute" in Avignon, Deleuze Monument was controversial from thestart, and it was dismantled two months before the end of the exhibition after being vandalized.Dezeuze describes the chronology of the project, including negotiations with local residents; thedynamic between affirmation and vulnerability in Hirschhorn's work; failure and "scatterart" in the 1990s; participatory practices; and problems of presence, maintenance, andappearance, raised by Hirschhorn's acknowledgement of "error" in his discontinuouspresence on site following the installation of Deleuze Monument.

Anna Dezeuze, is the editor of The 'Do-it-yourself' Artwork: Participation from Fluxus to New Media and co-editor, with Julia Kelly, of Found Sculpture and Photography from Surrealism to Contemporary Art. Her writing has appeared in Oxford Art Journal, Women & Performance, Performance Research, Mute, and Art Monthly. She is a Lecturer in Art History at the Ecole Superieure d'Art et de Design Marseille Mediterranee.