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Venue
Moni Lazariston / Bazaar Hamam / Warehouse C, Thessaloniki Port Area / Museum of Byzantine Culture / Courtyard of the Archaelogical Museum of Thessaloniki
Artist
Yuri Albert
 Artists's biography |
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Self Portrait with Closed Eyes, installation |
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Self Portrait with Closed Eyes, installation |
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Self Portrait with Closed Eyes, installation |
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Self Portrait with Closed Eyes
My installation has the title “Self-Portrait with Closed Eyes” and consists of 88 descriptions of paintings and drawings by van Gogh, created by him in his letters to his brother Theo. These descriptions are presented in the form of plates hanging on the wall like paintings, covered with texts written in Braille (a system of reading and writing for blind people). This way it is a real van Gogh for the blind, because he himself created these descriptions, on the other hand, it is an attempt to imagine what van Gogh could have done in case he had put out his eyes instead of cutting off his ear.
There is a wish also to invite also blind visitors to this exhibition, not only the ordinary artistic audience.
The main result and aim of the project is to make different types of visitors, or to be more exact—different types of incomprehension—meet. For example, qualified visitors are not able to read the texts in Braille, but obviously they are able to evaluate the exhibition in the context of contemporary art. On the other hand, the blind, who never visit exhibitions, are able to read van Gogh’s texts, but obviously they consider them as the aim of this event.
At the same time, I hope that all those participating in the event will notice and realize the fact of their own incomprehension, feel a kind of discomfort; for example, those who can see—from the fact that the blind are also there and vice versa. Even if we suppose that somebody from the visitors will identify his position with the one of the author and think that he is above the individual incomprehension and understands the work in its wholeness, I am afraid he will be wrong, because the work is absolutely not about what he thinks it is, though, maybe this work is dedicated to the search for the ideal visitor—a blind expert of painting and admirer of modern art.
The installation was made in Thessaloniki with the help of the School of Blind
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