스킵네비게이션

Born 1973 in Bridgeport, USA

Lives in Brooklyn, USA

Jill MAGID, Tender, 2020, United States penny with engraved edge, variable dimensions

Courtesy the artist and LABOR, Mexico City

Half a kilogram of the cremated remains of Mexican architect Luis Barragán are preserved in a 2.02-carat rough cut diamond. The object is presented within an open black ring box, its base inserted between a slit of white padded silk, and placed behind a glass porthole within the wall. This is The Proposal, a 2016 work by Jill MAGID first exhibited in Switzerlandat the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen. The Swiss origin of the work is significant; the ring represents just a portion of the work, which is complemented by volumes of related documents that trace an attempt to have the architect’s professional archive returned to Mexico from its current holding in Birsfelden, Switzerland, where is has been since 1994. The archive, allegedly gifted as an engagement present by the chairman of the Swiss furniture company Vitra, remains to this day under the private ownership of his once fiancée Frederica Zanco’s not-for-profit organization, the Barragan Foundation, which controls complete rights to the architect’s images and work. By creating an engagement ring—a symbol previously absent in the arrangement—MAGID forges a proposal of a different kind: one of repatriation, transparency, and legacy.