THE READYMADE CENTENNIAL

The year was 1913, the place - Paris. Marcel Duchamp was then 26 years old. He took a bicycle wheel and a kitchen stool, fastened them together via the fork of the bike, and placed this work in his studio. He coined the term "readymade" two years later, when he was in New York. The original bicycle wheel and stool were lost, but a place of honor is reserved for them in the history of art as the first readymade. In retrospect, it was one of the boldest and most revolutionary notions in the history of modern art, a notion with far-reaching impact on the way that art would later develop. Duchamp showed us that an artist's talents also lie in his ability to point at something that exists and not necessarily in his ability to create something new. Duchamp also taught us that in choosing a readymade object, an artist bestows new meaning and existence to the object in the world. Is there a revolution greater than this?

Upon the centennial of the "Bicycle Wheel", it is fitting to reexamine the significance of Duchamp's legacy today. Is there any art at all that does not take, borrow and appropriate readymade objects or point at them? Can art in the 21st century shake off the tyranny of the readymade, and escape from its definition as an object and thus as a commodity? And in fact - is there still a radical aspect in the use of a readymade object in a world in which objects are the very heart of the capitalist system?

The works of 37 contemporary artists displayed in the exhibition unfold a broad range of gestures, challenges and provocations regarding Duchamp's notion, which changed the face of art and the way the artist operates in the world.