Jan Hoeft often challenges the boundaries of art in his works. His performances and interventions in urban space engage the viewers and make them into rightful makers of an artwork. Thus his artistic strategy is convergent with the views of the German artist and social activist Josef Beuys, author of the social sculpture concept.
In July 2015 on the Krakow Błonia – a vast meadow stretching between the stadiums of two hostile football teams Cracovia and Wisła – the artist placed a 10 m steel rail. A white and red football fan scarf was hung over it, whose purpose was to initiate contact with passerbys. A phone number written on the scarf allowed the caller to participate in a remote performance. The nature of this ironic intervention was partly ephemeral and whether the viewer experenced it in full was up to him/her.
Jan Hoeft (b. 1980) – creates conceptual photography, videos, performances and art interventions in urban space. Graduate of Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne and Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. The artist is interested in the contemporary global society, obsessive need for safety and absurd pursuit of rationally grasping even the tiniest elements of reality. He creates astonishing interventions in public space that are marked with irony and a sense of humour.
Anti-documentation of the artistic intervention – transcription of a telephone conversation with a consultant, fan scarf with telephone number
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