Invited to take part in the group show "Soggetto/Soggetto", at the Castello di Rivoli, a Museum of Contemporary Art near Turin, I used this invitation as a chance to rehearse my disappearance from the art scene.
Instead of producing a new work, which would have ended up in some private collection, and sold a few years later to buy the work of the next hot artist, I organised an audition to find my "body double", somebody who would pose as me, appear in public instead of me.
I was looking for a woman artist, who vaguely resembled me, willing to sign her works with my name, and take part in all the future exhibitions I would be invited to. After placing ads in national and local newspapers, seven women turned up for the audition, which was filmed by Susanna Schoenberg, but eventually none of them accepted the offer. Being a professional artist for the whole year wasn’t a very appealing prospect, once I briefed them on the nature of the job!
At that time contemporary artists such as Maurizio Cattelan and Vanessa Beecroft (included in the group exhibition at Castello di Rivoli) had started to feature in gossip magazines and talk shows and claimed a place in popular culture next to footballers, actors and other celebrities. The search of my body double was meant to draw attention to the toxic celebrity culture that goes hand in hand with the loss of meaning and the commodification of both art and artists.
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