Thomas Hirschhorn - "Concordia, Concordia!!"

The piece, which borrowed the title from a tragic shipwreck which happened off the coast of Greece earlier this year recaptured my love of installation art.  The work was so clear and poignant that it seemed to bring one to a childlike state of wonder and an elevated moment of thought concurrently.  "A tour de force, intransigently denying and almost suicidal, a structured form of chaos and annihilation" is how Saltz described the piece.

The real moment when I decidedly fell in love with the work however, was not at the opening, but a week later when Hirschhorn was speaking at DIA Chelsea.  Such utter conviction and clarity of thought is rare to witness and the experience brought about a Beuysian moment in which the artist far superseded the role of the maker to become an agent of pure thought, a philosopher for the commons and a poet of matter.