Italian artist Salvatore Garau, 67, recently auctioned an ‘invisible sculpture’ that is literally made of nothing. The “immaterial” artwork is unusual in that it is ‘nothing’, meaning it literally does not exist in the material world. The ‘invisible sculpture’ was estimated to be sold between €6,000-9,000 (Rs 13, 33,459.70).
Garau said that the artwork titled ‘Io Sono’, which translates to “I am”, has its significance in nothingness. It went up for sale in May at the Italian auction house Art-Rite.
“The vacuum is nothing more than a space full of energy, and even if we empty it and there is nothing left, according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that nothing has a weight. Therefore, it has energy that is condensed and transformed into particles, that is, into us,” said Garau.
The ‘lucky’ buyer who managed to buy the ‘sculpture’ was given a certificate of authenticity and a set of instructions on how to “display” the invisible sculpture. According to the instructions, the sculpture is to be exhibited in a space with five by five dimensions and no obstructions inside a “private” house, ArtNet reported.
The artist further added that by ‘exhibiting’ an invisible object in a certain space, the artist was actually trying to concentrate the viewers’ thoughts and perceptions on that empty space. This, in turn, will lend various shapes and shades to the sculpture.
If you’re thinking that the artwork holds no value, Garau said, “After all, don’t we shape a God we’ve never seen?”
In fact, “Io Sono” isn’t Garau’s first invisible sculpture. In February, he exhibited Buddha in Contemplation, a similar invisible sculpture demarcated by a square of tape on a cobble-stoned walkway at the Piazza Della Scala in Milan.
This week, he installed Afrodite Cries in front of the New York City stock exchange. Netizens didn’t seem impressed with the ‘invisible sculpture’.
