Office Baroque, 1977

Gordon Matta-Clark’s work paradoxically ties creation to destruction in two significant ways. First, his sculptural “building cuts” were acts of removal, or “unbuilding.” Office Baroque consisted of a series of large overlapping, semi-circular cuts through the floors and roof of a five-story office building in Antwerp, Belgium. Second, Matta-Clark pointedly executed his cuts in buildings that were abandoned or slated for demolition. This was central to his critique of the politics of urban renewal. Since Office Baroque dissected a building that was later razed, it only exists today in the form of surviving fragments and documentation: a teardrop shaped slice of parquet wood flooring, support beams, and drywall, and a photograph providing a view through the successive holes. The objects on display are substitutes for the actual though destroyed artwork as well as a reminder of the forces of gentrification that would ultimately demolish the site of Office Baroque.