Gordon Matta-Clark
World Trade Towers
World Trade Towers, 1974
From Anarchitecture
Gelatin-silver print,
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur, gift Michael Ringier
2015-055-001
1945 (New York, US) – 1978 (New York, US)
Life in New York’s SoHo neighborhood in the late 1970s was marked by enigmatic figures who lived in cheap lofts and hung out in local bars and cafés. Among them was Matta-Clark, who with some of his artist friends ran “Food”, the first vegetarian restaurant in Manhattan. “Food” was an important spot for artists to socialize, and it offered a framework for intense discussions of utopian ideas and projects. Matta-Clark had trained as an architect. Working in places such as a demolished building near the Centre Pompidou or a Hudson River pier, he sawed off pieces of buildings, drastically redefining their use and aura through his interventions.