#fgt🥠exhibition
Between May 25 and July 5, 2020, hundreds of people around the world simultaneously exhibited the piece “Untitled” (Fortune Cookie Corner), created by the late Cuban-American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres thirty years ago, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. This site offers content related to my own installation of Gonzalez-Torres’ piece in Berlin as one of the curators, writers and artists invited to participate in this project.
In times of fear and despair, Gonzalez-Torres remained hopeful about the promise of human interconnection and intimacy. He conceived much of his work to engage us critically, as potential agents for change. Whether piles of candy, stacks of posters, or light-bulb strings, many of his pieces are decidedly democratic. As he once remarked, “without the public, these works are nothing.”
In 2020, we are confronted again with a public health crisis of global proportions. The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to reconsider what it means to be in touch with others. In this sense, Gonzalez-Torres’ work speaks to the challenges of our own time and invites us to try new ways of coming together, not just in fear but also in hope.
On May 25th — the very day the exhibition began — George Perry Floyd Jr., an African-American man living in Minneapolis and who had recently lost his job due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was brutally killed by a white police officer during an arrest for an alleged minor offense. Floyd’s senseless death has sparked protests in the United States and around the world against systemic racial injustice.
In light of these events, it is imperative to underscore that Gonzalez-Torres’ artistic practice addressed deeply-rooted dynamics of discrimination that persist to this day. Therefore I kindly ask that, as you browse through this site, you take some time to consider how racial injustice makes the adversity of the COVID-19 pandemic even harder to endure for millions of people around the world.
The multi-site exhibition of “Untitled” (Fortune Cookie Corner) was curated by Andrea Rosen and organized by Andrea Rosen Gallery, David Zwirner and the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation. In keeping with the artist’s intention, I made my installation of the piece available to the public in different ways over the course of the exhibition. These included personal visits by invitation or appointment, digital events and social media sharing, and a sticker action across Berlin. To learn more, please check the links below.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "Untitled" (Fortune Cookie Corner), 1990. Temporary installation, Berlin (Germany), May 25 - July 5, 2020. Coordinated by Michel Otayek in collaboration with Andrea Rosen Gallery, David Zwirner and the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation. Also pictured: Christoph Hänsli, Tablare, 2012. Photographs by Wolfram Hahn and Jakob Straub.