A WORK IN PUBLIC SPACE BY THOMAS HIRSCHHORN, PRODUCED BY DIA ART FOUNDATION NEW YORK
LOCATED AT FOREST HOUSES, THE BRONX - NEW YORK CITY, SUMMER 2013
Yesterday was a day of words. A group of young rappers and poets made their visit
to the radio station. One of them approached me and asked that I read two of his
poems. The verses were on the topic of love. The first one began with the joyful
emotions of reciprocal love while the second was a bitter ode to the loss of the
loved one and the nakedness of jealousy. The author clearly aware of the universality
of his experience appeals to our recognition of his suffering and the endurance of
his hope of the return of his beloved. The tenderness of Jamal's second poem made
me recall Gramsci's letters to his wife Giulia, the caring words that he used to
conclude each letter but also their mutual struggle at articulating with precision
of their emotions. In one letter dated February 9, 1929, he attributed their inability
to the "modern education of [their] minds, which has not yet found its own adequate
means of expression."
