A bar closed for renovation. Lavori di ristrutturazione. So I walked on to Casa dei Tre Oci, where Joseph Kosuth’s new show was waiting.
A banner across the Grand Canal asks you to detach the self from the outer world. Three seconds, then the next vaporetto passes.
Venice doesn’t allow detachment. That’s the point.
Notes from the first of May:

https://www.lautenbacher.photos/frameandfocus/where-are-you-standing

#Venice #Venezia #JosephKosuth #ConceptualArt #CasaDeiTreOci #ContemporaryArt #Giudecca

"In 1976, deep in #NewYorkCity’s fiscal crisis, the #artist #MierleLadermanUkeles read a review of her conceptual work in the Village Voice. In his review, #critic #DavidBourdon made a radical suggestion inspired by #Ukeles’ thesis: What if #municipalwork, like the #Sanitation Department, were #conceptualart? Could it get funded by grants, instead of by the city?

Ukeles presented the idea to Sanitation Department commissioner #AnthonyTVaccarello, who invited her to create #art for 10,000 sanitation #workers. The job would be unpaid. And, it turns out, she would keep it for nearly 50 years and counting.

Now 86, Ukeles is the subject of the #documentary #film “#MaintenanceArtist” directed by #Jewish #filmmaker #TobyPerlFreilich, which made its #NewYork #theatricalrelease last week at the #IFCTheater in #GreenwichVillage.

The title refers to Ukeles’ 1969 #manifesto, which declared that the everyday activities often relegated to women[...] were “#maintenanceart.”

https://www.jta.org/2026/04/29/culture/this-jewish-feminist-has-been-the-nycs-sanitation-departments-official-artist-for-50-years-a-new-movie-tells-her-story