Two Times Once

MrRossi

‘No two things can be exactly identical’, wrote German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, ‘otherwise they would be, strictly speaking, only one thing’. This was less than a century before the development of industrial production techniques, but Leibniz had a point: two given things can be similar, or identical, in some respects (colour, shape, weight, etc.) but clearly not in all of them: their position, for instance, will always be different. A curious consequence of this principle is that any two things can considered identical provided one only selects some relevant ‘respects’ under which such identity must be assessed. An apple and an orange are both fruits (hence are identical if we restrict our appreciation of their characteristics to ‘is/is not a fruit’). An apple and a car are both physical objects larger than a walnut and smaller than a hot air ballow. An apple and Alexander the Great are both deceased carbon-based life forms whose names start with an ‘A’.

A later philosopher, American metaphysicist David Kellogg Lewis, once told of an objection he had heard of against the theory that the human language was born ‘out of a convention’. The objection is that, of course, you already need language to convene on anything. To this he had tentatively answered that perhaps a convention can emerge spontaneously. His advisor's reply was that two people spontaneously deciding to create the same representation of the same thing (which is basically what language is about) was as likely as ‘throwing together an aircraf's components in the hope they'd fall into place on their own’. This, clearly, also applies to two artists creating the same work.

Combining the positions of Leibniz and Lewis would lead us to admit the unlikeliness of two artists ever creating a single artwork (since two ‘identical’ artworks would be but one, in the end). But identical under what respect? Even more: Leibniz's criteria of identity applies to people as well as artworks. In this case, we might reasonably consider that those two (or three, or five) artists who cannot logically create a single artwork could be considered but one, provided we select the right set of ‘respects’, under which such identity holds. A possible name for this artist would be Mr. Rossi. *

‘The only thing I cannot refute’, David Lewis also wrote, ‘is an incredulous stare’.

* Mr. Rossi is a project that started in 2007 with Italian artists, Vincenzo Latronico (1984, Rome, Italy); Alek O. (1981, Buenos Aires, Argentina); Matteo Rubbi (1980, Bermao, Italy); Santo Tolone (1979, Como, Italy); Mauro Vignado (1969, Pordenone, Italy); and British artist Ryan Gander (1976, Chester, UK). Their first show ‘As you enter the exhibition, you consider this a group show by an artist you don't know by the name of Mr. Rossi’, was producted with Art At Work in Milan in 2009. This is their first show in the UK.

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Installation view, ‘Two Times Once’