Provenance e Lot 248

“Provenance” explores a symbol of Modernism which has become a hot commodity on today’s market: furniture designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret for the Indian city of Chandigarh. Conceived in the mid-50’s on the wave of postcolonial euphoria, Le Corbusier’s project is emblematic of the failure of modernist socialist utopia. Amie Siegel creates a provenance document from these artifacts; her film re-traces the geographic peregrinations of these pieces of furniture, from the luxurious homes of rich collectors in London, New York and Paris, where they are today, back to the places for which they were originally intended. “Provenance” slowly reveals the factors which influence and determine the mechanisms which build an object’s value. Shown alongside the film is the short “Lot 248”, which raises other questions on speculation in the art and design market, and documents, with polemic evidence, the auction-sale of the film “Provenance”. Both videos were recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.