Jimmie Durham

image: (c) Claudio Abate
Public Monument for the Birthday of Rome, 1995
Installation , 250 x 450 x 250 cm
mixed media

"[The Public Sculpture for Rome] was a trash heap, a dump. It was the anniversary of Rome, which was 3,000 years old. They invited a lot of artists. Outside I made my monumental dump. It was marvelous doing it. We ultimately had to have security guards for the dump, because during the day people would come and they would try to take it. I helped them, I tried to say, This is art, would you please not touch the art." [full text here]