Jochen Gerz: Save the Moon

This is a work made by people and for people. Without these people the work would not exist. 2734 people participated in this public project and had their portraits taken. Over the course of the project, the people photographed took part in a demonstration holding their own portraits on banners in the streets of Cinisello Balsamo, near Milan. They demonstrated alone or alongside others for an hour after sunset. This went on for over a month. The works were then publicly displayed in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Cinisello Balsamo. When the show was dismantled, the photographs were randomly given back to the participants, with each person receiving a portrait of someoneelse with the hope that the photographs remain on display in the homes of these people, thus giving rise to a permanent public collection.In a way, Save the moon is saving ourselves. It is a dedication to all of us, the search for our individuality, not determined by the rules of production and consumption, but rather by dreams and by a rational lunacy. We offer nothing if not ourselves in the mysterious nocturnal dance between ourselves and our image.
It is a simple, bold gesture, playful and serious, mad and aware at the same time. A brief instant of futility, freedom and independence. Save the moon is both a collective and a profoundly individual demonstration.