Mark di Suvero has always associated himself with traditional left-wing political culture: according to one of his originary stories, for example, he used to refuse to produce objects for the art market, choosing instead to make toys for children in local housing projects. He claims to have learned from this “what worked and what didn’t.” Then there was his long and evidently painful self-exile from the United States during the Vietnam War—an exile that at least partially endeared him to the French. After settling in France, he was invited in 1975 by Michel Guy, France’s Minister of Culture, to

Jochen and Esther Gerz have been collaborating since 1984 on interactive public projects. Among the most notable of these was Monument against fascism, realized in Hamburg in 1986, a work consisting of a twelve-meter, lead-covered column that was progressively lowered into the ground as it was covered with signatures and inscriptions by passersby. In 1996 they also published the question “If the twentieth century were to start over, what would you change?” in a Ruhr newspaper—later presenting readers’ responses in a book and an exhibition. In their recent show, the Gerzes chose to display three