A decor was built near the restaurant Food, on a sidewalk in Soho, consisting of three corridors with doors, enabling a maze-like circulation. Open on top and installed on the side of the road, this decor appears to be a demonstration home that is open to all. The start of the video documents the construction of this sculpture. In a relaxed atmosphere, Gordon Matta-Clark and his friends build together, using wood, under the curious gaze of passers-by and young people from the neighbourhood who have come to have some fun. One whole sequence, shot in the rain, films a game with umbrellas, which they set up as a rooftop, for the fun of it. Out of his desire to intervene directly in everyday life, Gordon installs a sculpture with corridors and doors, which is rooted in everyday use and intended for the people in the street – a far cry from the informed gallery audiences. The construction was devised open to the sky, many of the shots are taken from above and sometimes unbeknownst to the spectators, which enables an element of surprise in the playful relationship that this construction instigates. The unfinished appearance of the whole and the gratuitousness of these openings gives this anonymous public pause for thought. The final sequence shows a police car stopped alongside, the police officers inside laugh with the children sitting astride the walls of the edifice.

Patricia Maincent

Translated by Anna Knight