Lost and Found

2002, Photograph transferred from Polaroid (each photo: 42 x 42 cm), various objects placed on steel shelves, dimension variable
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“Lost and Found,” a site-specific project that took place during the 2002 Gwangju Biennale, asked the question "What have we lost and what have we found?” in this huge art event that is the Biennale. My lost and found booth functioned as the official lost-and-found center of the Biennale and recorded the people and the things they had lost. Visitors and Biennale staff brought lost items to this booth, which were then retrieved by their owners. The entire process of people bringing lost items to this booth to be later reclaimed by their owners was documented as part of this artwork. With less than 10% of the lost items being claimed, the rest became part of my art, as they lost their everyday status and found new artistic value. With the “accidental” nature of losing personal items, this process became a means of “creating relations” with people.