On the second day of the St. Moritz Art Masters (the event runs until 7th September 2008) we went up a mountain with a group of journalists, art dealers, pr people and museum directors (Sam Keller was a bit late) to attend Christina Oiticica’s performance “Burying of Art”. Don’t worry: She didn’t bury art as such – but some of her own works, and she will exhume them next year.
Cristina Oiticica (born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1951) buries her art to be transformed by nature. “My work is affected, inevitably, by having been in close contact with nature for a year and a half, living the four seasons intensely. They ended up influencing my work. Normally things don’t occur on a conscious level, only on an unconscious one… The intention in my work is to go beyond the four walls protecting it, to use space and go beyond. Go beyond the four walls and be affected by the conditions of time, by circumstances, as Ortega y Gasset puts it.”
Christina Oiticica: Burying of Art (Performance). El Paradiso, St. Moritz, August 30, 2008. For more information about the St. Moritz Art Masters click this link.
PS: It seems that death is en vogue at the moment: Marco Evaristti, Gregor Schneider.
> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.