Gordon Matta-Clark

In May 1975 Gordon Matta-Clark and three assistants worked for two months in an abandoned store on Pier 52 near the Hudson River in New York. The late nineteenth-century steel industrial building reminded him of the proportions of a basilica, and he reacted to it with a series of circular, overlapping cuts in the floor, the façade, and the ceiling, removing only some of the segments. As a result of this intervention, Matta-Clark was sued by the authorities for damages amounting to one million dollars; the litigation was later dropped. Day’s End, also called Day’s Passing, existed for two years. (Sabine Breitwieser)