"FORMS OF COLLECTING" A PROJECT BY GIFFORD MYERS

Piazza del Popolo, Faenza, Italy-2011 Photos & Video: Mirco Campagnolo Maschio A new project by Gifford Myers, on the occasion of the fourth edition of the International Festival of Contemporary Art 2011, was presented 21-22 May in Piazza del Popolo, Faenza, Italy. The Festival theme was "Forme della Committenza/Forms of Collecting," 2011. Myers' alternative project, "Forms of Collecting" was included in the program of the festival as a side event, according to the Assessor of Culture Massimo Isola. The artist felt that the topic of the Conference, relating specifically to the curating and collecting of art, often as investment, overlooked other possible interpretations of "Forms of Collecting," including the needs and activities of less fortunate members of society. On the occasion of the 2009 Conference "Tutto Sulle Biennali" Myers built a 2-meter in diameter sphere made of used clothing and objects and placed on an old hand cart, with the title "Globalization" In 2011, working with the Comitato di Amicizia and Manitese Faenza, two beneficial charity organizations, the artist was provided 10 bales of used clothing and an old cart. Through personal meetings Myers received authorization for the use of two empty shops on the main piazza, Piazza del Popolo. Further meetings were held, receiving authorization for the project from the Assessor of Culture, the City Mayor and the Chief of Police. The first day one shop (A) was completely full with clothing and the other shop (B) was completely empty. The artist loaded clothing from the filled shop (A), onto a hand-pulled wooden cart , creating a large "collection" of clothing. Progress was slow as the clothing was gradually, meditatively and seemingly purposefully disseminated in a trail across the main piazza, arriving at the door of an empty shop (B) on the piazza. The artist returned numerous times to shop (A), eventually causing that shop to be empty, having used all the clothing to complete a trail to the door of the empty second shop (B). Returning again to the first shop (A), now empty, the artist collected the clothing from the trail, again creating large mounds on the cart, ultimately depositing all of the clothes from the trail into the empty shop (B) on the piazza and eventually filling that shop while leaving the "source" shop (A) completely empty. The windows of the second shop, as did those of the first shop previously, showed the layers or strata of the clothes as they gradually filled the space, while the opposite took place in the windows of the "source" shop (A). One completely filled space/volume was emptied while one completely empty space/volume was filled. The process then repeated itself, in rather a Sisyphus-like activity, repeating and reversing during 2 days of the Conference. The observers of the activity became, by default, unknowing participants in the activity, as the artist said, "there is no middle ground." There were no signs and no explanations of the activity. The artist proceeded with his "action" in the midst of normal activity in the piazza, giving no engagement with, or explanation to those people in the piazza. Any conclusions to be made could only be made by the viewers themselves. At the end of the final day Myers placed signs, "gratis" along the trail and people began to select clothing for themselves. In two hours most of the cloths had been removed, ostensibly by people who needed them. The project was completed. Contact: gmyers@uci.edu mircocm@gmail.com