Ugo Rondinone If there were anywhere but desert

The clown is a leitmotif in Ugo Rondione's diverse oeuvre. Since 1992, this circus mainstay has regularly made its appearance in his performances, video recordings, installations, paintings, photographs, and sculpture. "This artist's recent clown sculptures, entitled If There Were Anywhere But Desert, are laidback to the point of inertia-seemingly asleep or drugged. But they are not entirely lifeless. Part effigy, part golem, these creatures generate such a powerful sense of alienation that they leave us who venture into Rondinone's installations feeling cut off from iur susual terms of reference, our usual selves. (...) As I looked at the reflections of myself and the somnolent clown in the reflective network of Rondinone's mirrored wall and listened to his endlessly repeated diary entries, I felt greateful to him for following in the step of Lord Patchogue. I would never have had the nerve." - John Richardson in Rencontres 5, published by Editions Images Modernes/Almine Rech Gallery Editions.