Artist: Marina Razheva
Date: 2006
Type: Object, performance
Duration: 45 minutes
Location: Museum of Fine Arts, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Work description
An invisible fir tree is decorated with invisible ornaments.
For 45 minutes, Marina Razheva moves up and down a stepladder, performing the gestures of decorating a Christmas tree that cannot be seen. The tree exists through the artist’s movements and the actions directed towards it.
The performance produces no visible tree or ornaments. What remains is the action, its photographic documentation and the object’s subsequent history.
The Story
The Invisible Fir was created for Christmas Inside Me, a collective exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The exhibition ran from 22 December 2006 to 21 January 2007.
At the opening, artists took part in a live art-tree competition. Each had 45 minutes to create a Christmas tree in front of the visitors. The resulting works ranged from constructions made of everyday objects to experimental interpretations of the traditional festive tree.
Razheva chose to make a tree that was not there. She climbed a stepladder and went through the gestures of hanging ornaments on its invisible branches. For the duration of the performance, the audience could follow the work through her movements, although neither the tree nor the ornaments appeared.
The jury awarded The Invisible Fir the title of “most conceptual tree”, describing it as a “conceptual miracle”. The work was subsequently sold at a festive auction.
The performance began with an absent object and ended with a transaction. The tree could not be seen, yet it could be documented, judged and sold.
Exhibition and realization
Exhibition: Christmas Inside Me
Dates: 22 December 2006 – 21 January 2007
Venue: Museum of Fine Arts, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Event: Live art-tree competition, opening day, 22 December 2006
Duration: 45 minutes
Recognition: Awarded “most conceptual tree” by the jury
Subsequent history: Sold at a festive auction for 260 rubles
Press and reviews
“For almost an hour, the artist moved up and down a stepladder, hanging non-existent ornaments on a non-existent tree. The jury called it a ‘conceptual miracle’.”
— Daria Loshakova, IA Apelsin, 2006
“The tree is invisible — it can only be felt.”
— Olga Gentseleva, Vesti Ural, 2006
Documentation and sources
- Museum.ru: exhibition announcement
- Ural Art Museum archive, 2007
- Olga Gentseleva, Vesti Ural, 2006
- Daria Loshakova, IA Apelsin: 45 minutes to create a New Year tree