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ALEKSANDRA MIR/JONATHAN MONK
SWISS INSTITUTE
495 Broadway, 3rd floor
November 13December 20
By Christopher Bollen
Artforum, Critics Picks, December, 2003.
From Broodthaers on, visual and linguistic typologies have proved irresistible to Conceptual
artists, both as formal models and subjects of critique. Aleksandra Mir and Jonathan Monk, in a
joint exhibition at the Swiss Institute, go a bit farther out on this limb than usual,
attempting systematic catalogues of time and space itself. Mir resumes an ongoing project
kicked off earlier this year at the Palais de Tokyo. She has taken it upon herself to give
Western appellations to Tokyo's numerous nameless streets, collecting lists of suggestions from
friends and associates. Nicolas Bourriaud, for example, suggests using the names of "imaginary
important people," while Annika Ström votes for the titles of love songs. Mir has assigned
these random signifiers, according to her own recondite logic, to certain areas of Tokyo in the
sincere hope that they will make their way into common use. A stack of maps, bearing the
made-up names, sits in the center of the gallery along with model street signs. It's a
characteristic Mir provocation, leaving the viewer to find the distinction between
cross-cultural outreach and acts of would-be imperialism. Jonathan Monk, meanwhile, offers
several of his slide-projector pieces along with a series of wall texts, each indicating a
place and a future time (such as "Le 21 juin 2012 à 14 heures au col de la Furka Suisse").
These inscrutable works might be seen as plot points, diagramming and mapping out the
featureless expanse of the future.
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