excerpt
« If art is a sign (or jacket) of the individual making it, I can therefore focus on the preferred instrument, that is the ‘context'. I can move about within a context as an instrument seeking to integrate, adapting to an external situation (however, as soon as I become a spectator and fix my attention on the outside work, I become passive, seen from a distance...). If the artwork is understood as a target for spectators who experience it as they enter an exhibition space and as they aim for it, I can therefore anticipate making art, use myself as a target, allowing the act of targeting by the spectators (however as soon as I turn my attention to myself, I close up and no longer present myself as a person, but rather as an object...). If an art space is a place for spectators and the art a gift the artist offers them, I can therefore join my space to theirs, I can confront the spectator (but as soon as I am there in person, I present a personality which both I and the spectators fix our attention, we then form an intimate space which escapes the outside world...). If art forms an architectural space, a spatial prototype, I can subtract my presence and leave the place to the spectators who become performers, taking my place (but as soon as the space is a projection of myself, the spectators are deprived of their own space, they occupy a no-mans land while I drift away leaving behind a space that it neither theirs nor mine...).»
Now I will tell you a secret. I am nodding my head.
Now I will tell you the truth. I am stretching.
Now I will tell you something that can't be questioned. I am waving my hands.
Now I will tell you the facts. I am waving my leg.
Now I will tell you something you don't know. I am chang ing position.
Now I will tell you what I swear is true. I am turning around.
Now I will tell you something there is not reason to doubt. I am bending over.
Now I will tell you something that can be proven. I am raising my eye.
Now I will tell you something there is no denying. I am folding my arms.
Now I will tell you something that he says is so. I am shrugg ing my shoulders.
Now I will tell you something he says he read in a book. I am crossing my legs.
Now I am walking. Like this.
Now I am building it. That way.
Now I am removing it. In this manner.
Now I am putting it in place. Just like that.
Now I am looking at it. That's how.
Now I am taking it. This way.
Vito Acconci, 1968
