Mother

Maurizio Cattelan, Mother

Documentation of an installation created for the 1999 Venice Biennale. Cattelan arranged for a fakir, a holy man trained in actions of endurance, to be buried in a mound of earth—leaving only his hands exposed to the air.

"It is an image of hope, implying that ultimately we have the capacity to escape our destiny, our roots, our obsessions and nightmares. As individuals and as artists, we have the ability to bloom from the ground like plants, which grow, no matter what the circumstances, because it is their nature and their obligation to do so… Like the fakir, he [Cattelan] explores the possibility of survival underground, and of finding the energy to re-emerge under an open sky."

This is a time in my life when it seems possible to be touched by everything.