[jovial music beings]
Male narrator December 28th, 1971. The artist Edgardo Vigo begins the action that you see documented here. He digs a hole and buries a block of wood; types out a certificate; signs it — along with two witnesses. One year later, he returns to the same spot and digs up the same block of wood.
[music ends]
These photographs, the notarized documents, and the shovel, are a record of his actions.
The date of Vigo’s gesture — what he called a “signaling” — hints at his purpose. In Argentina, December 28th is the equivalent of April Fool’s Day. Curator, Idurre Alonso.
[music resumes]
Idurre Alonso It’s kind of like a joke. He’s making fun of it, he didn’t choose December 28th for nothing.
Edgardo Vigo was someone that was questioning the traditional ways of making art. This is not a painting. This is not done in a museum even. This is something that he did personally with a couple of people he knew. So, this is a way to question, by generating an action that seems absurd. But it also has some political edge to it. He is questioning the bureaucracy of how things are done by creating all this paperwork — a trail of paperwork related to an action that is like nonsense. Vigo was like that. He’s very ironic in his work.
[music ends]
