Late American artist Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) had the persona of

a rough and ready pioneer complete withsensitivity and moral purpose. During hisshort career, mainly in the early 1970s hisdomain was the outskirts, whether aban-doned light industrial lofts in cast-ironbuildings of SoHo, houses in the NewJersey suburbs, or buildings on the list fordemolition.

Gordon Matta-Clark’s work has playeda central role in post-war art and architec-ture by changing the frame of these prac-tices both on conceptual and material lev-els. Gordon Matta-Clark’s art is knownwidely and respected throughout Europe aswell as the United States. Significant arthistorians and theorists, notably RosalindKrauss and Yve-Alain Bois, have delved intoMatta-Clark’s oeuvre with vigor. Howeveronly recently, in 2000, a monograph waswritten on his work by Pamela M. Lee andpublished by MIT Press. Matta-Clark’s firstmajor exhibition was at the InternationalCultural Center in Antwerp in 1978 and theonly American retrospective of his worktook place after his death at the Museum ofContemporary Art, Chicago, in 1985, fol-lowed by another significant exhibition atIVAM Julio Gonzalez Center in Valencia,Spain, in 1992. The dearth of institutionaldiscourse and exhibition of his work is duein part to his premature death, but moreimportantly to the ephemeral nature of hiswork.

Matta-Clark rejected his architecturaltraining at Cornell to become a sculptor.From the beginning of his career he sawspace from a highly untraditional perspec-tive. Matta-Clark’s material was socialrefuse on a large scale. He was fascinatedby the leftovers of man-made structuresand economic processes, whether subur-ban homes, alleyways or neighborhoods inthe process of decay, rejuvenation or demo-lition. He often, but not exclusively, workedwith architecture, fragmenting its materialconstruction and exposing its structure. Forthe series Bronx Floors (1972) Matta-Clarksurreptitiously entered abandoned decrepitapartment buildings and illegally cut outsquare sections of the floors/ceilings. Hebrought back Bronx Floors: Floor Above,Ceiling Below and exhibited it in SoHo. Herecorded in photographs Bronx Floors:Threshole (1972-1973), a rectangularremoval of the floor/ceiling on both sides ofthe threshold of a door. A difficult feat

Pokojni ameriËki umjetnik GordonMatta-Clark (1943.-1978.) bio je utiraË

putova, odluËan i spreman na sve, ustoproæet senzibilnoπÊu i moralnoπÊu. U svojojkratkoj karijeri, uglavnom poËetkom 1970-ih, boravio je na rubnim podruËjima gradova- bilo da je rijeË o napuπtenim industrijskimprostorima u graevinama od lijevanog æe-ljeza u SoHou, kuÊama u predgraimaNew Jerseya ili zgradama predvienim zaruπenje.

Rad Gordona Matta-Clarka imao jevaænu ulogu u poslijeratnoj umjetnosti iarhitekturi, to zbog toga πto je mijenjao kon-tekst tih praksa i na konceptualnoj i na ma-terijalnoj razini. Umjetnost Gordona Matta--Clarka dobro je poznata i poπtovana u Eu-ropi, kao i u Sjedinjenim Dræavama. VaænipovjesniËari i teoretiËari umjetnosti, pose-bice Rosalind Krauss i Yve-Alain Bois, iscrp-no su istraæivali njegovo djelo. No tek ne-davno, 2000. godine, MIT Press je objaviomonografiju o njegovu djelu, iz pera PameleM. Lee. Matta-Clark je prvu izloæbu odræao1978. u Meunarodnom kulturnom centru uAntwerpenu, a jedina ameriËka retrospektivanjegova rada bila je prireena nakon njegovesmrti u Muzeju suvremene umjetnosti uChicagu 1985. Uslijedila je joπ jedna vaænaizloæba u IVAM Julio Gonzales Center u©panjolskoj, u Valenciji 1992. Manjak insti-tucionalnog diskursa i izloæaba njegovihradova dijelom se moæe pripisati njegovojpreranoj smrti, ali vaæniji razlog je marginal-na priroda njegova djela.

Matta-Clark odbacio je svoje arhitekton-sko obrazovanje na sveuËiliπtu Cornell kakobi postao kipar. Od poËetka karijere poimaoje prostor iz vrlo netradicionalne perspektive.Matta-Clarkova graa bio je druπtveni otpadu πirokom smislu. Fascinirali su ga ostacistruktura koje je izgradio Ëovjek, kao i ostaciekonomskih procesa, bilo kuÊa iz predgraa,uliËica ili Ëetvrti u procesu propadanja, ob-navljanja ili ruπenja. »esto, ali ne i iskljuËivo,radio je s arhitekturom, fragmentirajuÊi nje-zine materijalne konstrukcije i razotkrivajuÊinjezinu strukturu. U nizu radova Bronx Flo-ors (1972.) Matta-Clark je potajno ulazio unapuπtene i oronule zgrade i ilegalno izrezi-vao kvadratiËne odsjeËke podova/stropova.Uzeo ih je i izloæio u okviru izloæbe BronxFloors: Floor Above, Ceiling Below u SoHou.Na fotografijama u seriji Bronx Floors:Threshole (1972.-73.) prikazao je kvadra-tiËno izrezivanje podova i stropova s obijustrana vratnog praga. To fiziËki teπko izrezi-vanje zamiπljeno je pomoÊu jednostavne

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matta-clarkoveintervencije: od periferije do prihvaÊenepraksematta-clark’s interventions: from outskirts to common practice

1. G. Matta-Clark, Bronx Floors, 1973, c/bfotografije / b/w photographs∂ Artists Rights Society and David Zwirner Gallery

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physically conceived with simple geometry,yielding a complex and dizzying image.

By dividing layers or cutting throughsections, he explored geometry and itsimplications in architectural configurationsof three dimensions and human scale. Thescale of life immediately implicates thesocial realm and the unwinding of materialexpanding into dimensions. By puttingarchitectural fragments into a gallery settinghe did not stultify these pieces by makingthem sculpture. They were enlivened, re-animated in the new space, because theycould not rest comfortably in balance withtheir new homes. Axes were flipped, as theorientation of expected viewing positionswere upended. The background and fore-ground were held in tension as structureand facade were commingled and disrupt-ed. Matta-Clark’s work presented the struc-ture simultaneously with the cavities with-out foregrounding one over the other.

As Rosalind Krauss has discussed inher key essay “Notes on the Index, Part 2,”Matta-Clark’s work is not representationalbut is the material itself and is thereforeindexical.

Though he provides material “proof” byusing, for example, the real slice of a wallslated for demolition, this does not estab-lish unequivocality or remove the multiva-lence of the meaning of this social processfor different parts of the populace. Matta-Clark put his finger on the material inter-section of economic upswings and down-turns. The disorienting place that he createsfor the viewer inside this material proofspeaks to the situation-specific vantagepoint from which one views economicshifts. From above, the swooping curvebelow your feet is a drop into the void, frombelow a sideways split may be an escaperoute to the level above.

In contrast to terms like site and non-site used by Robert Smithson, words likeunsite, unseat, or unsightly are probablymore appropriate to Matta-Clark’s work.His titles like Threshole or Fake Estates,instead of the expected “threshold” or “realestate,” reveal Matta-Clark’s playfulnesswith language. His work with the groupanarchitecture played out this interest inunhinging language from its commonly-held moorings. The group was not interest-ed in architecture as such but in the spacesaround buildings, overlooked and under-used places and the liminal spaces, thetransit spaces we would term them today.

geometrije, a dalo je sloæenu i omamljujuÊusliku.

DijeleÊi slojeve izrezanoga na odsjeËke,istraæivao je geometriju i njezine implikacijeu arhitektonskim konfiguracijama u tridimenzije i u ljudskim razmjerima. Razmjeriæivota neposredno impliciraju druπtvenopodruËje i rastakanje materijala koje se πirikroz dimenzije. PostavljajuÊi arhitektonskeelemente u galeriju, on nije zaguπio te dijelo-ve tako πto bi ih pretvorio u skulpturu. Oæivioih je, obnovio u novom prostoru, jer nisumogli udobno poËivati u ravnoteæi sa svojimnovim domom. Osi su bile obrnute, jer je ori-jentacija oËekivanog promatranja bilapostavljena naglavce. Pozadina i prvi planodræavali su se u napetosti, dok su strukturai proËelje bili pomijeπani i poremeÊeni.Matta-Clarkov rad predstavio je strukturu sprazninama, ne istiËuÊi u prvi plan ni jednoni drugo.

Kao πto je Rosalind Krauss raspravila usvom ogledu “Notes on the Index, Part 2”,Matta-Clarkov rad nije predstavljaËki, negoje on sâma graa te je stoga pokazivaËki.Premda on nudi materijalne “dokaze” slu-æeÊi se, na primjer, stvarnim isjeËkom zidaoznaËenog za ruπenje, time ne uspostavljanedvosmislenost niti pak uklanja viπeznaË-nost toga druπtvenog procesa za razliËitesegmente stanovniπtva. Matta-Clark upireprstom u materijalni presjek ekonomskihporasta i padova. DezorijentirajuÊi prostorkoji umjetnik unutar svoga materijalnogdokaza stvara za promatraËa govori o situa-cijski odreenom oËiπtu s kojega se proma-traju ekonomske mijene. Gledana odozgo,krivulja u padu ispod vas je sunovrat uprazninu, a odozdo neka prostrana pukotinamoæe biti spasonosan put na gornju razinu.

Za razliku od termina site i non-site,kojima se sluæi Robert Smithson, za radoveMatta-Clarka vjerojatno su prikladnije rijeËipoput unsite, unseat i unsightly.* Njegovinaslovi, poput Threshole ili Fake Estates,umjesto oËekivanog “threshold” i “realestate”, otkrivaju umjetnikovu zaigranost ujeziku. U radu sa skupinom anarchitectureizrazio je to zanimanje za izbacivanje jezikaiz njegovih uobiËajenih koloteËina. Grupa senije zanimala za arhitekturu kao takvu, negoza prostore oko zgrada, one koje se previai nedovoljno iskoriπtava te za graniËne pros-tore, ili prolazne prostore, kako bismo ih da-nas nazvali. U intervjuu u prosincu 1974.,objavljenom u Avalancheu, izjavio je: “Viπesmo razmiπljali o metaforiËkim prazninama,jazovima, ostacima prostora, mjestima koja

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2. G. Matta-Clark, Pier 52: Day’s End, 1975,Cibachrome fotografija / photograph∂ Artists Rights Society and David Zwirner Gallery3. G. Matta-Clark, Circus or “The CarribeanOrange”, 1978, Cibachrome fotografija / photograph∂ Artists Rights Society and David Zwirner Gallery

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* unsite, unseat i unsightly - radi se o neprevodivoj igririjeËi na engleskom jeziku.

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nisu bila razvijena... na primjer, mjesta gdjezastajete privezati vezice na cipelama, mjes-ta koja su samo prekidi u vaπim svako-dnevnim kretanjima. Ta mjesta su i percep-tualno znaËajna jer tvore referencu na pros-tor kretanja”.

ÆiveÊi u New Yorku poËetkom 1970-ih,Matta-Clark je razmatrao kulturu potroπnje iotpada u Sjedinjenim Dræavama. Godine1971. u posve novom kolektivnom umjet-niËkom prostoru u Greene Street 112,Matta-Clark naËinio je Cherry Tree (1971.)iskopavπi veliku jamu u zemlji ispod temeljagalerije i posadivπi mladicu u nju. Nakon πtose mladica nuæno osuπila, umjetnik ju jezamijenio gljivama i potom podigao trajnijispomen na to kratkovjeËno stabalce - dim-njak koji je optoËio betonom pod naslovomTime Well (1971.). SljedeÊi rad koji je izveou Greene Street 112 bio je Winter Garden:Mushroom and Waistbottle RecycloningCellar- zapravo, rastuÊa gomila stotina star-ih upotrijebljenih boca u podrumu. Ti suradovi bili poËetak Matta-Clarkove praksekritike koja je vidjela perspektivu u druπtve-nim otpadnicima. I dalje je upotrebljavaomjesta koja su sluæila kao odlagaliπta otpa-da. Bio je idealist i premda se njegov radmoglo kritizirati kao odviπe doslovan, upravonjegova fiziËka intervencija bila je transfor-macija bez otkupljenja. Ta mjesta nijeosposobljavao ni za kakvu drugu svrhu.Iskoriπtavao je njihov nov umjetniËki poten-cijal. Njegov umjetniËki rad ostao je otpadniproizvod druπtva - bio je posve beskoristan.Nije pokuπavao ispraviti druπtvena zla, negoih ponuditi na uvid na nov naËin.

Fake Estates (1973.) je komentar bru-talne pohlepe kapitalizma koja se ne oslanjana upotrebnu, nego na razmjensku vrijed-nost. Matta-Clark je otkrio da grad New Yorkstavlja na aukciju “otpatke” parcela po poje-dinaËnoj cijeni od 35 dolara. Te neobiËnesiÊuπne parcele obiËno su bile posljedicapogreπaka pri mjerenju i katkad se Ëak nijemoglo ni doÊi do njih (upravo to ga senajviπe dojmilo). Bile su beskorisne, ali suimale komercijalnu vrijednost. To je bit kapi-tala: on akumulira vrijednost jednostavnotime πto je u optjecaju. Umjetnik je kupio pettih parcela u Queensu i na Staten Islandu, apotom joπ 15. Ta su zemljiπta preπla u vlas-niπtvo grada jer njihovi vlasnici nisu platiliporez na zemlju. Nekoliko godina nakonMatta-Clarkove smrti te su parcele ponovnodospjele u gradsko vlasniπtvo, a 2003. ih jegodine, zajedno s nekim drugim parcelama,kupio i namijenio ih za umjetniËke projekte

In an interview in December 1974 publis-hed in Avalanche he stated, “We werethinking more about metaphoric voids,gaps, leftover spaces, places that were notdeveloped…for example, the places whereyou stop to tie your shoelaces, places thatare just interruptions in your daily move-ments. These places are also perceptuallysignificant because they make a referenceto movement space.”

Based in New York City in the early1970s, Matta-Clark’s work reflected on theculture of consumption and waste of theUnited States. In 1971 at the brand newcollective art space 112 Greene Street,Matta-Clark made Cherry Tree (1971) bydigging a huge hole into the ground underthe basement of the gallery and planting asmall sapling. After the tree’s inevitabledemise, the artist replaced it with fungusand later installed a more permanentmemorial to the short-lived tree—a chim-ney pipe which he surrounded with con-crete titled Time Well (1971). Anotherpiece he made that year at 112 GreeneStreet was Winter Garden: Mushroom andWaistbottle Recycloning Cellar, a growingpile of hundreds of old used bottles in thebasement. These pieces were the beginningof Matta-Clark’s practice of critique thatsaw promise in society’s cast-offs. He con-tinued to use sites that were waste prod-ucts. He was idealistic and though his workcould be criticized for being too literal, itwas precisely his physical intervention thatwas a transformation without redemption.He did not put these sites to new use. Hefulfilled a new potential that they have asart. His work as art remained a waste prod-uct of society—ultimately useless. He didnot try to mend social ills, rather offer themup for inspection in new ways.

Fake Estates (1973) commented onthe ferocious greed of capitalism that didnot rely on use value but on exchangevalue. Matta-Clark found that the City ofNew York was auctioning odd remnants ofland for $35.00 apiece. These strangeparcels were tiny, usually the result of mis-calculations that were sometimes eveninaccessible (what he found most alluring).They were of no use, yet they had commer-cial value. This is the essence of capital: itaccumulates value simply by being in circu-lation. The artist purchased five in Queensand Staten Island, and then a total of 15plots. These areas had become city proper-ty because their owners failed to pay tax on

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the land. A few years after Matta-Clark’sdeath, once again these plots reverted tothe city, and in 2003 the Brooklyn-basedmagazine Cabinet purchased these plotsalong with some new ones as sites forartists’ projects inspired by Matta-Clark.

Like consuming empty calories, peopleelect to pay good money for useless things.Both Fake Estates and the collective restau-rant project Food that Gordon Matta-Clarkopened with friends in SoHo in 1971engage this link un-ironically from oppositeends. In her monograph Object to BeDestroyed, Pamela Lee connects Matta-Clark’s artmaking to Hegel’s notion that athing is valued once it has passed into astate of disuse and it is recognized that itwas once useful but is no longer. (Lee,112) Desire is to future tense as value is topast tense. Gordon Matta-Clark actualizedthe playfulness of this discrepancy.

Day’s End (1975) was a cutting of anabandoned pier in the Hudson River nearthe meatpacking district. A remnant of thelong past days of ship commerce and laboron the river, Pier 52 had been re-appropri-ated by gay men for the playfully unproduc-tive urban practice of sexual cruising. Thesetypes of cuts differed from the vertical linearcut through a two-story home in suburbanNew Jersey of his work Splitting (1974), orthe square areas cut out of the floor/ceilingin the series Bronx Floors (1972-1973).Day’s End were a set of vast almond-shaped and semicircular gouges in the westside of the warehouse allowing the lateafternoon sun to flood into the cavernousinterior and through the floor, exposing theriver water outside below.

Through his spatial excavations, Matta-Clark intervened in the linearity of time. Inaddition to working with material substance,he was concerned like the Situationist In-ternational with flows of passage and com-munication through a city. He was workingjust after the strong presence of theSituationist International, who were active inthe mid-late sixties and the publication ofGuy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle(1967) in France. He did not try to captureand concretize, but instead by workingmaterially he highlighted simultaneously thebanality and the elusiveness of the struc-tures that surround us. Though he workedon a few sites internationally, his processwas engaged centrally with New York at thattime, as he attempted to expose the elusiveactivity of a site before its tenor changed to

nadahnute Matta-Clarkom, bruklinski Ëaso-pis Cabinet.

Kao πto vole konzumirati bezvrijednekalorije, ljudi vole i dobro plaÊati beskorisnestvari. I Fake Estates i kolektivni projekt res-torana Food koji je Gordon Matta-Clark otvo-rio s prijateljima u SoHou 1971. bez ironijerazmatraju tu povezanost sa suprotnihstrana. U svojoj monografiji Object to Be De-stroyed Pamela Lee povezuje Matta-Clar-kovu umjetnost s Hegelovim poimanjem dase stvar cijeni kada prijee u stanjeodbaËenosti i kada se shvati da je prije bilakorisna, ali viπe to nije. (Lee, 112). Æudnjaje za futur ono πto je vrijednost za perfekt.Gordon Matta-Clark ostvario je zaigranost tediskrepancije.

Day’s End (1975.) bio je izrezivanjenapuπtenog mola Pier 52 u rijeci Hudsonpokraj Ëetvrti s mesnom industrijom. Kaoostatak davno proπlih dana trgovaËkemornarice i rada na rijeci, Pier 52 prisvojilisu homoseksualci za zaigrano neproduktivnuurbanu praksu seksualnog cruisinga. Tevrste rezova razlikovale su se od vertikalnihlinearnih rezova kroz dvokatnicu u pred-grau New Jerseya u njegovu radu Splitting(1974.) i od kvadratiËnih izrezaka iz podo-va/stropova u seriji Bronx Floors (1972.-1973.). Day’s End bio je niz πirokih ureza uobliku ljeπnjaka ili polukruga na zapadnojstrani skladiπta koji su omoguÊavali da posli-jepodnevno sunce obasja zatvorenu unutraπ-njost, a kroz pod se moglo vidjeti i rijeËnuvodu.

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4. G. Matta-Clark, Bingo, 1974, 3 isjeËka zgrade /3 assembled building fragments∂ Artists Rights Society and David Zwirner Gallery5. G. Matta-Clark, Conical Intersect, 1975,Cibachrome fotografija / photograph∂ Artists Rights Society and David Zwirner Gallery6. G. Matta-Clark, Conical Intersect, 1975, 6 c/bfotografija / 6 b/w photographsLjubaznoπÊu / Courtesy: David Zwirner Gallery

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Svojim prostornim iskapanjima Matta--Clark je intervenirao u linearnost vremena.Uz rad s materijalnom graom on se, poputSituacionistiËke internacionale, bavio tokovi-ma prijelaza i komunikacijom unutar grada.Radio je upravo nakon jake prisutnosti Situ-acionistiËke internacionale, koja je bila aktiv-na sredinom i krajem πezdesetih nakon ob-javljivanja Druπtva spektakla Guya Deborda(1967.) u Francuskoj. Nije pokuπavao niπtaizraziti ni konkretizirati, nego je umjesto to-ga, radeÊi s materijalima, rasvjetljavao is-todobnu banalnost i dvosmislenost strukturakoje nas okruæuju. Premda je radio na neko-liko mjesta u inozemstvu, u svom procesutada je ponajviπe razmatrao New York. Pri-tom je pokuπavao razotkriti neuhvatljivu ak-tivnost mjesta prije no πto se njegov smisaopromijeni tako da se jednostavno pretvori utrag svoje nekadaπnje krepkosti ili u priËu,filmski set ili turistiËku destinaciju.

Restoran Food i druπtvena mreæa uSoHou koja ga je okruæivala naznaËuje per-formativnu stranu Matta-Clarkova rada.Matta-Clark izveo je samo nekoliko perfor-mansa i to podruËje njegova rada zrelo je zadaljnje analize. U radu Pier 18 1971. nauæetu je visio s visoka stropa nad gomilomsmeÊa, sliËno kao πto bi Ëinio u svojim mno-gobrojnim ilegalnim izrezivanjima u napuπte-nim zgradama. To je formalno bila umjet-nost performansa, ali njegove druge aktiv-nosti postavljaju ga unutar okvira site-specif-ic kiparstva. U Descending Steps for Batan(1977.) tri je tjedna kopao sve dublju jamuu galeriji Yvon Lambert u Parizu, kao sveËanispomen na svog brata blizanca koji jepoËinio samoubojstvo skokom s prozora Gor-donova stana. U prosincu 1976. umjetnik jebio pozvan da sudjeluje na izloæbi “Idea as aModel” na Institute for Architecture andUrban Studies u New Yorku, koji je utemeljioPeter Eisenman. U procesu stvaranja radakoji je bio odobren za izloæbu, a koji je pod-sjeÊao na njegov niz fotografija WindowBlow Out iz iste godine, izgubio je hlad-

become simply a trace of its past vigor, or astory, or a film set, or a tourist destination.

The restaurant Food and the socialnetwork in SoHo that surrounded it pointsto a performative side of Matta-Clark’swork. Matta-Clark executed just a few per-formances, an area of his work that is ripefor further analysis. At Pier 18 in 1971 hedangled from the high ceiling on a rope overa pile of debris, much like he would duringhis many illegal cuttings in abandonedbuildings. This was formally performanceart, yet his other activities are consideredwithin the realm of site-specific sculpture.In Descending Steps for Batan (1977)every day for approximately three weeks inYvon Lambert gallery in Paris he dug adeeper and messier hole into the earth as asolemn memorial for his twin brother whocommitted suicide by leaping from GordonMatta-Clark’s studio window. In Decemberof 1976 the artist was invited to participatein the exhibition “Idea as Model” at theInstitute for Architecture and Urban Studiesin New York, founded by Peter Eisenman.In the process of creating a work that hadbeen condoned for the exhibition, recallinghis Window Blow Out series of photographsof the same year, he became outspoken,ranting against the methods of architectswith whom he had trained, as he methodi-cally shot out, one by one, all of the win-dows of the Institute.

Yet Gordon Matta-Clark was a materi-alist of the hopeful sort. He did not negate

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material reality, nor was he a nihilist. Bytaking apart, he created. He was not adeconstructivist, though he has been her-alded by its proponents. He acted directlywithout irony and operated in a zonebetween playfulness and violence. For hismost dynamic piece Circus or alternatelytitled The Caribbean Orange (1978) theartist carved circular whorls like an unpeel-ing orange through the three-story interiorof a house next door to the Museum ofContemporary Art in Chicago that was laterrenovated as an addition to the museum.Like a futurist painting that has come to lifein full dimension, it is an orchestratedcacophony, a circus with several rings inmotion simultaneously. Although a fairlycontrolled and legal action unlike many ofhis others, this was a fairly threateningspace to move through, and artist LawrenceWeiner did fall unscathed through one ofthe cavities.

His work was lent frisson his physical-ly labor-intensive process of retrieval fromdecrepit buildings in precarious situationsand also by the audience’s presence inthese spaces. Alternately when Matta-Clarkre-positioned objects that had lost their pur-pose by bringing them into a different socialcontext, that of the artworld, Matta-Clarkrejuvenated not only the material of hissubjects but also the neighborhood ofSoHo, which was then known as the SouthHouston Industrial area and just starting tofind new life as an art community. Todaythat particular social fabric is only a traceas well, and his work is not regularly seenbecause very few remnants remain.

There were a number of other artists ofhis generation who investigated some of thesame artistic and cultural phenomena, buthe was not necessarily closely aligned withthem and their practices differed signifi-cantly. Dan Graham researched Americanhomes, suburbia, the urban landscape andperception. Matta-Clark’s work shared so-me common points with Robert Smithson’ssites and non-sites, however Matta-Clarkwas interested in intervening in, but notstopping, the process of decay rather thanstudying or enacting entropy as Smithsondid.

His contemporaries Walter De Maria,Donald Judd, Michael Heizer and JamesTurrell were also creating monumental site-specific projects. Their most significantworks are located in the landscape of theWestern United States. Matta-Clark did not

nokrvnost i glasno se suprotstavio meto-dama arhitekata s kojima je studirao te jesustavno jedan po jedan razbio sve prozorena Institutu.

No, Gordon Matta-Clark bio je materi-jalist optimistiËkog soja. Nije poricao mate-rijalnu stvarnost niti je bio nihilist. Stvarao jerazbijajuÊi. Nije bio dekonstruktivist, iako suga zastupnici dekonstrukcije cijenili. Djelo-vao je izravno, bez ironije, u prostoru izmeuzaigranosti i nasilja. Za svoj najdinamiËnijirad, Circus, pod alternativnim naslovom TheCaribbean Orange (1978.), umjetnik jeizrezbario kruæne spirale nalik na oguljenenaranËe u unutraπnjosti trokatne zgrade uzMuzej suvremene umjetnosti u Chicagu,koja je poslije obnovljena kao dogradnjaMuzeja. Poput futuristiËke slike koja je oæiv-jela u punoj dimenziji, to je orkestriranakakofonija, krug s nekoliko prstena koji seistodobno gibaju. Premda je to u znatnojmjeri nadzirana i legalna akcija, za razlikuod mnogih drugih njegovih akcija, ona jestvorila prostor kojim se bilo priliËno opasnokretati, a umjetnik Lawrence Weiner doistajest pao kroz jednu od πupljina, no nije seozlijedio.

Njegov je rad izazivao jezu svojim tje-lesno zahtjevnim procesom pabirËenja pooronulim zgradama u opasnim situacijama,a i prisutnoπÊu publike u tim prostorima.Alternativno, kada je Matta-Clark objektekoji su izgubili svrhu premjeπtao u drugidruπtveni kontekst, naime u kontekst svijetaumjetnosti, on nije obnavljao samo materi-jale mjestâ na kojima je radio, nego i cijeleËetvrti SoHo, koja je tada bila poznata kaoindustrijsko podruËje South Houston i tek jepoËinjala pronalaziti nov æivot kao umjet-niËka zajednica. Danas ni od toga druπtve-nog tkiva nije mnogo ostalo, a njegovo sedjelo obiËno ni ne vidi, jer je preostalo tekmalo tragova.

Odreeni broj drugih umjetnika njegovegeneracije istraæivao je iste umjetniËke i kul-turalne pojave, ali on se nije nuæno svrstavaomeu njih i njegova praksa znatno se razliko-vala. Dan Graham istraæivao je ameriËke do-move, predgraa, urbani krajolik i percepci-ju. Matta-Clarkov rad imao je dodirnih toËa-ka s mjestima i ne-mjestima Roberta Smith-sona, ali Matta-Clark se zanimao za interve-niranje u proces propadanja - ne za njegovozaustavljanje - viπe nego za prouËavanje iliprovoenje entropije, πto je Ëinio Smithson.

Njegovi suvremenici Walter De Maria,Donald Judd, Michael Heizer i James Turrelltakoer su stvarali monumentalne site-spe-

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cific projekte. Njihovi najznaËajniji radovi bilisu smjeπteni u krajolicima zapada Sjedinje-nih Dræava. Matta-Clark nije krstario ameriË-kim Zapadom kako bi pronaπao savrπenomjesto za svoje remek-djelo. On nije speci-fiËno smjestio svoj rad, kao πto je JudduËinio s fondacijom Chinati u gradu Marfa uTeksasu, niti je radio na nekom jedinstve-nom mjestu, poput vulkanskoga kratera uTurrelovom radu Roden Crater ili pustinje,kao u Heizerovom nizu City (oba su rada joπu procesu) ili pak golema otvorenog polja(De Maria, Lightning Field, 1977). U radusa zemljom u prvom planu je krajolik uneprekidnoj mijeni, πto je materijal tih um-jetnika - i sirova i obraena supstancija rada.Matta-Clark je istraæivao ljudske tragove uonome πto je ostalo nakon promjena, neprirodnih, nego onih koje je prouzroËio Ëo-vjek. Radio je s druπtvenim zapletima, kojisu bili pod pritiskom da se razviju u sljedeÊufazu u æivotnom ciklusu træiπta nekretnina.Ta promjenjivost i neodluËivost nije dugotraj-na evolucija, nego naprotiv, ona odmah bivauvuËena u podruËje ljudskih ekonomskihsukoba.

Naslijee Gordona Matta-Clarka danasje πiroka tema koja joπ nije sustavno istraæe-na. BuduÊi da je njegova praksa obuhvaÊalai druge struke, sliËno radu Donalda Judda napodruËju umjetnosti i dizajna, ona upravoistiËe gdje su graniËne crte izmeu tih svje-tova. U arhitekturi je njegovo naslijee opte-reÊeno tenzijama i proturjeËjima. ArhitektiHerzog De Meuron i Rem Koolhaas bili supod jakim utjecajem Matta-Clarkovih ideja,ali oni to u svom radu pokazuju na posverazliËite naËine: prvi je doslovno ukljuËioMatta-Clarkove geste izrezivanja, a drugi po-stavljajuÊi prazninu kao ugaoni kamenzgrade. U umjetniËkoj praksi, dobro poznataHouse (1993.) britanske umjetnice RachelWhitehead, betonski odljev, u punoj veliËini,stvarne kuÊe u Ëetvrti East London koja jebila oznaËena za ruπenje, jasno iskazujeMatta-Clarkov utjecaj.

No, najdublji tragovi koje je ostavioMatta-Clark rasprπeni su u diskursu suvre-mene umjetnosti: izlaganje negativnih pros-tora, razotkrivanje druπtvenih procesa upo-trebe i bacanja, premjeπtanje predmeta iotkrivanje putova komunikacije, prijelazi iliskrivene infrastrukture umjesto stvaranja for-malnih predmeta - sve se to danas smatrauobiËajenom praksom u meunarodnoj vi-zualnoj umjetnosti. t

prijevod / translation: Goran VujasinoviÊ

foray into the American West to find theperfect site for his masterpiece. He did notsite the work, as Judd did with the ChinatiFoundation in Marfa, Texas, nor did hework with a singular site such as a volcaniccrater like Turrell’s Roden Crater or thedesert, as in Heizer’s City series, which areboth ongoing, or a vast open field like DeMaria’s Lightning Field (1977). At the forein working with the land is the constantlychanging landscape, which is the materi-al—both the raw and finished substance ofthe work—of these artists. Matta-Clark’sinvestigated the man-made traces of whatis left behind not in natural but man-madechange. He worked with social plots, whichwere under pressure to evolve into the nextphase in the real estate cycle of life. Thischangeability and undecidability is not anevolution over the ages but on the contraryis immediately thrust into the domain ofhuman economic wrangling.

The legacy of Gordon Matta-Clarktoday is a vast subject, which has not yetbeen systematically examined. Because hispractice engaged other disciplines, similarto Donald Judd working in art and design,it highlights precisely where the lines aredrawn between these worlds. In architec-ture, his legacy is fraught with tension andcontradiction. Architects Herzog De Meuronand Rem Koolhaas have been affecteddeeply by Matta-Clark’s ideas, yet theydemonstrate this very differently in theirwork, the former by incorporating literallyMatta-Clark’s gestures of cutting and thelatter by enacting the void as the corner-stone of building. In art practice, the Britishartist Rachel Whiteread’s well-knownHouse (1993), a full-size concrete cast of areal house in East London that was slatedfor demolition, strongly demonstratesMatta-Clark’s influence.

However Matta-Clark has left thestrongest traces scattered throughout con-temporary art discourse in fragments:exhibiting negative spaces, exposing socialprocesses of use and disuse, displacingobjects, and revealing routes of communi-cation, passage or hidden infrastructuresrather than creating formal objects are con-sidered common practice throughout visualart practice internationally today. l

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≥ Katherine Carl piπe doktorat o koncep-tualnoj umjetnosti πezdesetih i sedamde-setih godina u bivπoj Jugoslaviji na Odsjekuza povijest umjetnosti i kritiku na StateUniversity of New York. Radila je u Dia ArtFoundation (1999.-2003.), ArtsLink(1996.-1997.) i u National Endowment forthe Arts (1991.-1995.). Meu njezinimnovijim projektima su: School of MissingStudies, go_HOME (New York, 2001.),Tandem Project (Washing-ton, DC, 2000.),a usto je osnivaË i urednik Ëasopisa Link: ACritical Journal on the Arts in Baltimore andthe World.Katherine Carl is writing her PhD on con-ceptual art of the sixties and seventies inthe former Yugoslavia in the department ofArt History and Criticism at the StateUniversity of New York, Stony Brook. Shehas worked at Dia Art Foundation (1999-2003), ArtsLink (1996-1997) and theNational Endowment for the Arts (1991-1995). Her recent projects include: Schoolof Missing Studies, go_HOME (New York,2001), the Tandem Project (Washington,DC, 2000), and she is a founding editor ofLink: A Critical Journal on the Arts inBaltimore and the World.

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