Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel

12 November 2012

Bicycle Wheel (Roue de Bicyclette), 1998
Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu
Carbon bicycle wheel, Philippe Stark’s design stool
153 x 63 x 30 cm
Pablo Rico Collection, Mexico 


In 1998 Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu collaborated on an obvious remake of Marcel Duchamp’s Roue de Bicyclette, his first “readymade” object. Duchamp combined a bicycle wheel, a fork and a stool to create a machine which served no purpose, subverting accepted norms of art. The original, 1913 version was lost, but Duchamp re-created the object in 1951. Vu and Jakober’s version uses a carbon wheel and a stool designed by Phillippe Starck.

Roue de Bicyclette
Marcel Duchamp, 1951 (third version, after lost original of 1913)
Metal wheel mounted on painted wood stool
129.5 x 63.5 x 41.9 cm
The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection

Turquerie

Turquerie

Having penetrated the Balkans in the fourteenth century, conquered Constantinople in the fifteenth, and reached the gates of Vienna in the sixteenth, the Ottoman Empire long struck fear into European hearts. 

The Ottoman Way of Serving Coffee

The Ottoman Way of Serving Coffee

Coffee was served with much splendor at the harems of the Ottoman palace and mansions. First, sweets (usually jam) was served on silverware, followed by coffee serving. The coffee jug would be placed in a sitil (brazier), which had three chains on its sides for carrying, had cinders in the middle, and was made of tombac, silver or brass. The sitil had a satin or silk cover embroidered with silver thread, tinsel, sequin or even pearls and diamonds.

Symbols

Symbols

Pera Museum’s Cold Front from the Balkans exhibition curated by Ali Akay and Alenka Gregorič brings together contemporary artists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.