Concept

-2012-

Common Ground asserts Jankowski’s desire to be buried on common ground along with a flat, granite tablet inscribed: »CHRISTIAN JANKOWSKI / 1968– / BURIED SOMEWHERE / ON COMMON GROUND / CITY HALL PARK.» The date of Jankowski’s death is to be be added posthumously, but there is still plenty of red tape for the artist to cut through before this project is realized. City Hall Park in New York once housed mass graves for the poor – as well as being the site of a former African burial ground. Jankowski’s wish to be buried on unconsecrated ground, far from home, raises questions regarding different types of territory: legal, geographic, personal, emotional. His headstone also invokes the gray area within art between a sculpture and a monument: Since his body may never be found – he plans to be buried somewhere, anywhere, on common ground.

Performance

Gravestone

Polished granite, 6 _ 12 _ 16 cm and artist’s body, unique