A HOUSE FOR GRIGORI PERELMAN

 

It is very possible this is not what Grigori Perelman needs.

 

Indeed, as he himself declared: he got everything he needs.

 

It is actually not him, who needs A HOUSE FOR GRIGORI PERELMAN, BUT US.

 

Yes, us.

 

We, who never have enough of anything…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here it is a truly great mathematician who got everything, everything meaning sharing a small flat in an apartment building together with his mother.

 

The ever thirsty for sensationalism “media” compares him now with Rasputin or Diogene.

 

How strange all of this is…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Sad, very sad can be the banality of human kind.

 

Indeed, how could we ever understand that a human being, just like us, would refuse 1,000,000 dollars..?????????????????????

 

Through this very gesture Grigori ruined the very mythology at the core of the “greatest” country on earth, USA, obsessed as it is with the MILLION DOLLARS.

 

Bravo, Grigori, you declared your independence from the banality of the majority of us…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You ridiculed, by implication, the paper idols of Capitalism, and the country that still epitomizes it in its most paroxistic (and ridiculous) forms.

 

There was once a process called Brancusi against the United States.

 

Equally we can imagine one now called: Perelman against the United States. Creativity against money, imagination against the merchant, immeasurableness against the banality of what is measurable.

 

We need more people like Perelman, who have everything, already.

 

Non greedy people, preferring to use their mind / heart for other purposes than to acquire more and more banalities.

 

Bravo, Perelman. Yes, you might almost mean the death of architecture too, since what would architecture do in the absence of those who have enough vanity to invest in it…?????????????

 

Even more interesting, in this context, would be A HOUSE FOR GRIGORI PERELMAN.

 

Would it be a house at all…????? Or would it be just a barrel, like Diogene’s…??????????????????????

 

You might say that this is an invitation to minimalism.

 

Not necessarily.

 

Minimalism could be quite pretentious and expensive, in its own right. Most “minimalist” artistic gestures are actually for the affluent elite, full of money and vanity.

 

Many times, minimalism hides riches and vanity.

 

To say I have enough and to refuse a deserved (actually) prize of 1,000,000 dollars shows a mental and affective disposition that is very unusual.

 

So we ask you to conceive a house for such a complicated (because essentially very simple) “customer.”

 

Design a house for Perelman.

 

Please send us ANY work, ANY size and ANY format to house_for_perelman@icarch.us. We will publish all the works received on our new website, www.icarch.us. There is no registration fee. The deadline to submit your work is December 31st, 2010. If you have any questions please contact us.

 

Thank you,

 

ICARCH Gallery