A scene from John Bock's performance Zero Hero (2005)
The Moore Space in Miami is opening a new loft space to coincide with ArtBasel Miami Beach, and its inaugural show will be a re-presentation of John Bock's performance and installation, Zero Hero (2004-5), first shown at the Venice Biennale in 2005. Zero Hero reinterprets the strange-but-true story of Kaspar Hauser, a teenage boy who appeared in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany, in 1828, and who also became the subject of Werner Herzog's 1974 film, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. The boy lived from birth to the age of about sixteen in a small, dark cell with a straw bed for company and consuming only bread and water for sustenance. Hauser was unable to speak, nor properly walk. Having lived without human contact, he had consequently grown to have neither reason nor memory, and was unskilled in the use of his hands.
In reality, Hauser was driven to despair, but in Bock's reinterpretation of events, he becomes self-confident and refuses to be defeated by his past. Bock's performance rests on his use of a grand installation/stage set, which supplies the various props (raw eggs, a bucket of spaghetti) used by both the artist and another actor in their absurdist retelling of events. In Venice, Zero Hero was installed in the Arsenale, and in Miami the work is sure to come alive in the Moore Space Loft, a 7,500 square foot warehouse.
John Bock
The Moore Space, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to multi-disciplinary contemporary art practices, was founded in 2001 by collector Rosa de la Cruz together with Craig Robins. Since then, an integral part of its exhibition program has been to invite guest curators to contribute new ideas and new thought to the organization and to the Miami arts community at large. The Moore Space Loft will focus on long-term projects.
John Bock, 'Zero Hero'
Opening 6 December 2006 and ongoing
The Moore Space Loft
3627 NE 1 Court
Miami, Florida 33137
Tel: (305) 438 1163
www.themoorespace.org
)
)
)