David Horvitz : "A Disappearance from Winschoten"

Beschrijving

Kunstenaarsboek van David Horvitz over zijn persoonlijke verdwijning in het kielzog van de Nederlandse kunstenaar Bas Jan Ader. - This publication documents a work by David Horvitz made on the occasion of a Bas Jan Ader-themed exhibition in Holland in 2012. Annoyed by the curators, Horvitz literally disappeared one month before the show, leaving all his belongings and quitting social media. He returned on the exhibition's closing day, and explained his piece to the curators: “In 2012 I was asked to be in an exhibition in Holland themed around the Dutch artist, Bas Jan Ader. I was to come to the small town of Winschoten for a month and make the work for the exhibition. The town was a short bike ride away from the small village where Ader's father was a minister. After staying in Holland for about a week, I became annoyed with the curators. From this annoyance I decided what work I would give to them for their exhibition. I was to disappear from Winschoten. Not to romanticize Ader's own disappearance at sea, but to disappear from a situation I did not want to deal with. Obviously, I would not tell them any of this. So one morning I left. I went off as if I was going to a coffee shop to work on my computer. I had my laptop, a small amount of money in my pocket, my camera, my passport. I was wearing a light jacket, and also had my notebook and a book I was reading. In my room was my wallet with some money and all my credit cards and library cards and various other IDs. I left a pile of books and the rest of my clothes and my suitcase. I left food, various notebooks, watercolors, my laptop case, various photocopies and receipts, and all my toiletries. I left my phone charger, my laptop charger, and my camera charger. I then got on a train and left Winschoten. There were still two or three more weeks until the exhibition was to open, and it was scheduled to be on view about a month. From that day until the exhibition's scheduled closing day, I remained off of all social media. No one was to know what happened to me. On the last day of the exhibition I came back online and explained my piece to the curators.”