PIERO MANZONI'S ARGUMENT, 2010
Photograph, jar, artist's breath, annotation
The annotation reads:
The jar of Italian artist Piero Manzoni's (1933 – 1963) breath has been in our family since 1960 when my father's uncle Latvian stage designer Edvards Vārdaunis (1910 – 1999) had the rare opportunity to leave the Soviet Union for a visit to Italy. On 21 July, while sightseeing in Milan, he came across Manzoni realizing his most famous manifestation: "Consumption of dynamic art by the art-devouring public". Vārdaunis was bewildered by the manifestation so once it had come to an end, he engaged in conversation with Manzoni. The two artists had a lengthy discussion about the meaning and purpose of art. In the end Manzoni took the jar and exhaled his final argument into it, gave it to Vārdaunis and told him to think about it.
