Lest’s do an imagination exercise. Close your eyes and imagine that a spectacular sculpture is now placed in front of you, with beautiful textures and the colors that you like the most. The shapes are determined by your mind. Do you see? Is it a person, an animal or something indescribable? Whatever the result, it is beautiful and floods your senses with a sense of tranquility. Now it’s time to open your eyes (hypothetically clear), the sculpture is simply not there anymore and it’s not that it doesn’t exist, you saw it yourself, the point is that it’s invisible. This is the concept behind the work of the Italian artist Salvatore Garau, except that he has auctioned off his prized invisible sculpture for $18,000.
Since conceptual art has existed, its essence has flooded the minds of critics who question whether what is appreciated is really art and has caused controversy throughout the planet. But after a history of works loved by many and rejected by many others, conceptual art is now reaching its peak thanks to Salvatore Garau.
A space full of energy
The 67-year-old Italian artist has just achieved what no artist has ever achieved before and that is to sell an invisible sculpture for 15,000 euros (about $18,000). The work titled I sound (I am) It is not precisely that it does not exist, but that it is immaterial. According to Garau himself, the sculpture is built of “air and spirit” so it could not be said that it is merely ‘nothing’, since “emptiness is space full of energy”. So his work, more than a banal non-existence of matter, is “energy that is condensed and transformed into particles. This is, in us”, explains the artist.
Initially, the Art-Rite auction house had valued the work between 6,000 and 9,000 euros. However, as the auction progressed, the buyers raised their value to reach 15,000 euros. The buyer took home an invisible sculpture and a certificate of authenticity, that if material. As well as instructions from the artist himself to place the work of art. The piece, according to its creator, must be installed in a private house, in a space of 1.50 x 1.50 meters.
But this is not the first invisible sculpture that the Italian artist exhibits in art galleries. Garau had previously installed invisible works in the emblematic Piazza Della Scala in Milan. There he installed Buddha in contemplation, framed by a picture of masking tape drawn on the floor. And in New York, opposite the Stock Exchange, he also placed Aphrodite crying. To exhibit his works he has not had the greatest inconvenience. That is perhaps the biggest benefit of making them invisible, since you don’t have to have the permissions to do so.
Garau, with his argument that his sculptures do exist, only that they live in the imagination of his viewers, shows us that conceptual art is reaching its highest point. Although if this situation is beneficial or not for the aesthetic experience, that is the decision of each viewer. Ultimately, that is what art is all about, discovering the feelings that a work awakens in us, positive or negative, that depends on each person.
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