Pablo Helguera

2010

Book, 21.6 cm x 14 cm, 58 p, language: English, publisher: New York: Jorge Pinto Books Inc., ISBN: 9781934978320.
Materials: ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2025/476).

Literary synopsis

In 1660, a mysterious sect of Dutch mystics arrived to an island in the New World with the objective to create a new society. Their governing principle revolved around the uninterrupted performance of a single dramatic work in seven tableaux vivants. Invoking alchemical imagery and hermetic thought, their goal was to arrive to a higher state of being by collectively embodying the symbolic representation of all of human and divine knowledge. Their experiment, which would last a century, would test the human boundaries of time, physical endurance, and the commitment of a society toward an idea.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

Uryonstelaii is a project consisting of two complementary components: a book published by Jorge Pinto Books, New York, and a one-time only series of performed prologue tours delivered by historical reenactors. The contents of the performed prologue are not included in the publication and are not meant to be reproduced beyond their single performance. The project was presented as part of The Sixth Borough, an exhibition at Governors Island in the summer of 2010 curated by Manon Slome and Julian Navarro for No Longer Empty.

Novel's website