Inviti

The project, part of the author's critique of the system, addresses the issue of how contemporary art is experienced and of the so-called art system in general.
An initial version of the project was developed starting in 1991. In one of the artist’s notebooks, we can find notes about a solo exhibition that was supposed to take place in a private gallery in Rome at the beginning of 1992 but was never realized, probably because the art dealer feared a possible misunderstanding of the performance.
The project, in fact, was based on the participation of a group of prostitutes, invited and paid to attend as guests. Their presence was meant to provoke a sense of alienation in the spectators, who would perceive something unusual compared to a typical vernissage.
The performance was to be documented through photographs and audio recordings, but it was canceled by the commissioner a few days before the opening.
An alternative version of the project appeared in a book published by the Jartrakor Study Center in 1992. It was based on the idea of inviting people with distinctive, easily recognizable features (such as clergymen), but dressed “normally,” in order to evoke in the viewers a subtle sense of unease or strangeness.
The same project was later described in the catalogue of the exhibition Exhibit A at the Serpentine Gallery in London, which focused on the question of the role and meaning of the “exhibition.

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