Contemporary with the body art and works of Gina Pane and Charles Simonds, this “sand experience” continues František Lesák’s research into the theme of perception. Here, in a radical manner, the artist experiences being deprived of space by immersing his body in sand, to the point of completely disappearing. The 15 photographs in the series catch the body’s gradual return to fresh air. If, for Lesák, this movement of emergence onto the earth’s surface represents a visual challenge in itself, the meaning of this performance is also linked to the state of physical and mental tension that follows confinement. The enclosure of the buried body sets up a negative space: “… space forms itself within the physical experience of the matter surrounding the body”, explains Lesák; this is what is shown by the two drawings which round off the installation, specifying the nature of the sensations felt by the artist. These experiments involving wrapping, where the surface of the body activates the surface of the art, are akin to those conducted by Land Art artists such as Dennis Oppenheim and Michael Heinzer.
Aurélien Vernant
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3 x
1972
002 08 05
Dessin
Encre et crayon graphite sur papier
66.5 x 94
1972
002 08 16
Dessin
Encre et crayon graphite sur papier
66.5 x 94
1972
002 08 17
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 01
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 02
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 03
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 04
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 05
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 06
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 07
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
60.3 x 40.3
1972
002 08 08
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 09
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 10
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
60.3 x 40.3
1972
002 08 11
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 12
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
60.3 x 40.3
1972
002 08 13
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
40.3 x 60.3
1972
002 08 14
Photographie
Photographie marouflée sur aluminium
60.3 x 40.3
1972
002 08 15
