Vito Acconci

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Vito Acconci bigraphy, stories - Designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist

Vito Acconci : biography

24 January 1940 –

‘Crash’, photointaglio, [[aquatint, relief and shaped embossing by Acconci, 1985]] ‘City of Words’, [[lithograph by Acconci, 1999]]

Vito Hannibal Acconci (born January 24, 1940) is an American designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.

Life and work

Education

Acconci went to a catholic elementary school, high school, and college. He attended Regis High School in New York City. He received a B.A. in literature from the College of the Holy Cross in 1962 and an M.F.A. in literature and poetry from the University of Iowa. "There wasn’t a woman in my classroom between kindergarten and graduate school." Richard Prince interviews Vito Acconci, , BOMB Magazine, referenced 25/4/12

Works

Acconci began his career as a poet, editing 0 TO 9 with Bernadette Mayer in the late 1960s. In the late 1960s, Acconci transformed himself into a performance and video artist using his own body as a subject for photography, film, video, and performance. Most of his early work incorporated subversive social comment. His performance and video work was marked heavily by confrontation and Situationism. In the mid 1970s, Acconci expanded his métier into the world of audio/visual installations.

One installation/performance piece from this period is Seedbed (January 15–29, 1971). In Seedbed Acconci lay hidden underneath a gallery-wide ramp installed at the Sonnabend Gallery, masturbating while vocalizing into a loudspeaker his fantasies about the visitors walking above him on the ramp. One motivation behind Seedbed was to involve the public in the work’s production by creating a situation of reciprocal interchange between artist and viewer.

In the article "Video: the Aesthetics of Narcissism",Krauss, Rosalind. "Video: The Aesthetics of Narcissism." October 1 (1976): 50-64. JSTOR. Web. Rosalind Krauss refers to aspects of Narcissism apparent in the video work of Acconci. “A line of sight begin Acconci’s plane of vision ends on the eyes of his projected double”. Krauss uses this description to underline aspects of narcissism in the Vito Acconci work "Centers." In the piece Acconci is filming himself pointing directly at himself for about 25 minutes, by doing so Acconci makes a nonsensical gesture that exemplifies the critical aspects of a work of art through the beginning of the 20th century. Krauss also goes on to explain the psychological basis behind the actions of video in comparison to discussions of object art.

In 2008, in an interview with Brian Sherwin for Myartspace, Vito discussed Seedbed at length. Vito discussed the title Seedbed and the connection it had to the performance, stating, "I knew what my goal had to be: I had to produce seed, the space I was in should become a bed of seed, a field of seed – in order to produce seed, I had to masturbate – in order to masturbate, I had to excite myself.", Myartspace, 17 April 2008. Retrieved 4 January 2013.

In the 1980s, Acconci turned to permanent sculptures and installations. During the 1980s he invited viewers to create artwork by activating machinery that erected shelters and signs. He also turned to the creation of furniture and to prototypes of houses and gardens in the late 1980s. The artist also founded Acconci Studio in 1988 focusing on theoretical design and building. Acconci Studio is located on Jay Street in Brooklyn. Acconci has designed the United Bamboo store in Tokyo in 2003 and collaborated on concept designs for interactive art vehicle Mister Artsee in 2006 among others.

More recently, the artist has focused on architecture and landscape design that integrates public and private space. One example of this is "Walkways Through the Wall," which flow through structural boundaries of the Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and provide seating at both ends.

A good example of this interest on the private/public space is the collaboration he did with architect Steven Holl when commissioned on a collaborative building project for Storefront for Art and Architecture. The project replaced the existing facade with a series of twelve panels that pivot vertically or horizontally to open the entire length of the gallery directly onto the street. The project blurs the boundary between interior and exterior and, by placing the panels in different configurations, creates a multitude of different possible facades. Now regarded as a contemporary architectural landmark, is visited by artists, architects and students from around the world.