Ruins of the industrial landscape in Gordon Matta-Clark's work: a critical entropy?
Résumé
The beauty of the spaces created by Gordon Matta-Clark's perforations should not overshadow the critical dimension of his work. He proceeded from the beginning to a division and a transformation of the buildings, cutting literally in the walls, the partitions or the grounds. Is seems relevant to question the critical dimension which is at the heart of his artistic approach. It reveals a negative dialectic characterized by the permanent deconstruction of the places explored by Matta-Clark. How to qualify the images constructed by the artist to document an ephemeral work? Insofar as these images are an integral part of certain installations, in what ways do they document the material investigation of an abandoned industrial landscape? I will start my article with the photographic series Walls / Walls Paper (1972) which captures remains of abandoned buildings to move towards the cut of the Bronx Floors (1972-1973). Finally, the Day's End (1975) project sees the artist to invest a post-industrial place that wants to be sustainable. But in the absence of authorization, the place is closed, and the artist forced into exile. The resulting film remains the most radical testimony of “Anarchitecture” concept from Matta-Clark’s perspective. By choosing his artistic freedom as a paradigm essential to his gesture, he runs up against his own system and deploys his aporia as a critical system.