What we look at is empty in the first place. Facing the White Cube and its intention to present an abundance of uniqueness, its faces of observation seem to be isolated, uniform and repetitive. Daniele Ansidei raises the question HOW DO YOU LOOK AT IT by developing a photo series out of numerous visits of gallery openings. His camera view reflects the look of the viewers – or are they performers themselves?
Instead of highlighting the observed object – the artwork – Ansidei focuses on the elements, which construct and stage its social visibility among the art world: the walls, curtains, frames and exhibition texts of the White Cube and its posing public. Their presence performs an exclusive habitus, which finally represents a system of presentation. Thus, the individual becomes a model in a context-based scenario, whose destination point stays indefinite. HOW DO YOU LOOK AT IT might therefore work rather as an investigation than as a question: A vague climax is leading nowhere but in between the pictures, which are staging social events like sculptural gestures; a look of looking.

Text by Agnieszka Roguski