Properties without goods: from lots of Gordon Matta-Clark to the manifestations of Félix González-Torres

Author(s)

Julia Buenaventura Valencia de Cayses

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU/SBI)
• Defense date: 2014-05-26

Examining board members

Agnaldo Aricê Caldas Farias; Carlos Roberto Monteiro de Andrade; Maria Cristina Machado Freire; Vera Maria Pallamin; Guilherme Teixeira Wisnik

• Advisor: Agnaldo Aricê Caldas Farias

Abstract

This work is a meeting point between two artists of the second half of the twentieth century: Gordon Matta-Clark (New York, 1943-1978) and Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Guaimaro, Cuba, 1957-New York, 1996). The connection is established through works that are proposed as a contradiction in terms: properties without physical goods, or the possibility of owning one thing that does not exist in a material way. The first, Gordon Matta-Clark, with the work Reality Properties: Fake Estates, consists of the purchase and photographical registers of real estates, with their boundaries, marked in the deeds and maps, shows no discernible physical space. The second, Félix González-Torres, with works that find their origin in Certificates of Authenticity / Property of objects to be manifested, that is, built by the owner of the piece or by the one who borrows the right to assemble it. Properties without goods that - sighted by Matta-Clark in the 70s and constructed by González-Torres in the 90s - opens a range of questions about basic themes of a society founded on exchange and accumulation. Specifically: bureaucracy, exchange value and the notion of property that consists of more than an object to be possessed, a covenant to be respected. Covenant deals anchored on a complex economic and legal structure -numbers and letters- that both artists explore to the ultimate consequences. This text is the story of that exploration. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/13106-6 - In the time of consumption: Félix González-Torres
• Grantee: Julia Buenaventura Valencia de Cayses
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate