Vito
Acconci

Vito Acconci's iconoclastic, provocative work attests to his total artistic commitment to breaking down the borders between creation and real life. Initially a writer, the page being, in his words, “a reduced performance space”, in the late 1960s he turned to performance, which he documented on photographs and film. 

A key figure on the New York scene, he acquired a sulphurous reputation for his radical physical performances. He followed people in the street (Following Pieces, 1969), masturbated in public (Seedbed, 1972) and chronicled the exploration of his own body (Body Works). His winding path in search of all forms of expression led him to video, installations and, in the 1980s, architecture and urban planning, with public space “functioning as a forum, a place for debate and discussion”. 

Acconci's work, including The Object of It All (1977), was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2007 “Passage du temps” (“Passage of Time”) show at the Tri Postal in Lille.