ENGAGEMENT ART EXHIBITION NO. 1: An Invitation To Authentically Engage

A Pre-meeting Share for the Gallerist

Thank you for taking time to understand this work. I've given this exhibition multiple times in Amsterdam in years past, and it's my hope that engagement art’s social relevance in our chaotic and attention drowned times comes up to the surface.

What, factually: For 1 to 3 days, during the exhibition opening and on peak visiting days, a engagement artwork sits on a stool in your gallery, their back to the wall.

As a visitor, when you walk toward them, you see a small foam board to their right that reads: "Engagement Art Exhibition No. 1"

As you begin to engage, you realize this engagement artwork is not performing. They are exhibiting. Something feels different about this conversation, but what?

The answer, you realize, is that it's authentic in a way that is unlike any ‘normal’ conversation. Something is eye-opening about it, without knowing exactly why. This person is being more authentic with you than you've experienced in a very long time from anyone, much less a stranger.

If curious, you might learn that this is because the artwork has pre-agreed to be as deeply authentic with you as possible: without any agenda, and without a need to influence or prove anything to you.

Slowly, you're brought to a state where you can almost touch the fabric of your own experience. Where you can remove the layers of daily life, shed your inhibition, and be liberated from the shoulds that seem to dictate every moment of our social existence.

Pricing: At some point during the interaction, the visitor might notice that beneath the foam board describing the artwork is a smaller one that reads:

"Pricelist available with the gallerist." This is because the glorious yet ephemeral experience of these engagement artworks is available for purchase, to be experienced again.

Creation Process: As the gallerist, you may want to know how I chose whom I chose.

These are people who already had a certain aptitude for authenticity, self-awareness, and a lack of need to perform or prove themselves, alongside a willingness to be more authentic than society typically allows. I then work with them for many studio hours to reach a state where they can engage in this way with less inhibition than ever before. As many as it takes to get to a very real place that, for the visitor, feels disarming, rewarding, and, through the experience itself, gives them a sense of meaning in their presence in the gallery

Logistics: These works are arranged at no cost to the gallery, with the expectation that the gallery's standard commission upon purchase of an experiential engagement artwork would apply. I welcome your further inquiry and a sincere discussion.

Thank you,

Micah Kessel | micahkessel@gmail.com | (917) 608 4826