Yaima Carrazana – The Golden Antelope. Amsterdam 2011

Artist text:

‘The Golden Antelope’ is an Indian fairy tale animated by the Soviet school of animation (directed by Lev Atamanov 1954-1957). In the fairy tale a malicious and greedy rajah tries to get hold of a divine antelope that is able to create gold. During the hunt for the magical creature an orphaned peasant boy saves and hides the antelope. The rajah’s servants seize the boy and demand to be told where the antelope is. In the end the golden antelope rescues his friend and the rajah is punished for his greed.

“The Golden Antelope” is directly related to my childhood in Cuba. During the 1980s in Cuba children’s television programs were limited to cartoons from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries of Eastern Europe...Generally characterised by a reference to educational and moral issues.

I have used this story to create a site-specific intervention, taking the floor of the gallery as a work of art. The exhibition is a whim on trying to make the audience to see solely what I want them to see, “the golden floor of the gallery”. The gallery space is not empty, but the viewer is asked to focus on something that is there, but was not selected as art before.

One might think that exhibiting emptiness is already done, but these “transgressions” of empty rooms, destruction of paintings, and other radical acts, do not occur in places such as Artpocalypse Collective, self-sufficient, alternative art spaces…. only in large museums, public and well funded. Therefore, the golden floor in this exhibition is not the ideal work. The ideal work would be a floor like this, but made from real gold, well funded and to be sold for millions. However, as this is not possible I sell “The Golden Antelope” for € 300 per square meter.

Artpocalypse Collective
Tweede Laurierdwarsstraat 64
1016 RC Amsterdam

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