installation shot, Jan de Cock, Denkmal 11

The young Belgian artist Jan de Cock (b. 1976) has shown in many European venues over the last several years, including the Tate Modern in London and De Appel in Amsterdam. This exhibition at MoMA is his first major show in the United States. Landing on our shores after having achieved the status of a distant but persistent rumor, if not quite a cult item, his work turns out to be compellingly erudite, tasteful and clever. But after the first flush of formal audacity wears thin, it unfortunately registers as an emotional dead end, dry and airless, failing to find resonance beyond its own hermetic self involvement.

On June 25th in Paris I witnessed a tenderly moving performance by the artist Nicola (no last name, but not to be confused with the Nicola, no last name, who sang “Don't Break My Heart” at Romania 2003live Eurovision http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYw4Ze1nK2k). Our Nicola fashioned here a group occurrence entitled "La Cape du Blues" (The Cape of Blues) at Place Saint-Sulpice as part of "Les artistes cassent la baraque" (with the assistance of Galerie Patricia Dorfmann). Some of you may be familiar with Nicola’s late-1960s/early-1970s group street performances such as Red Coat: Same Skin For Everybody and the outstanding 1975 piece Rug. This performance was very much in the same vein, this time involving 12 performers, 1 saxophonist, and Nicola herself, who directed the event - with a crowd of around 50 people all watching and walking along following the pageant.