The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 15, 2026

A color photograph depicts a man with a medium-dark skin tone leaning forward through a wooden doorway. He wears a black tuxedo and bow tie, his mouth open. On the door, silver characters read "229A." To our right, another man with a medium skin tone smiles towards the left while wearing a red and blue plaid shirt over a dark vest. Behind him, a tall concrete wall fills the background.

Name Announcer

2011

Pierre Huyghe

(French, b. 1962)
France
A person at the entrance of a space
Purchased with funds from an anonymous donor 2017.191
© Pierre Huyghe 2011
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Name Announcer became the first work of performance art in the Cleveland Museum of Art's collection in 2017.

Description

On the threshold of an exhibition space, someone asks the name of the person who wants to enter and announces it to the space. The person’s presence is amplified, brought to the attention of the people who entered previously. This experience offers an alternative to the expected anonymity of public space.
  • “New in the Galleries." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 58, no. 3 (May/June 2018): Back cover. Reproduced and Mentioned: Back cover archive.org
  • The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (May 14-August 8, 2021) https://walkerart.org/calendar/2021/paradox-of-stillness.
    Reopening weekend. Plateforme 10 /Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne 17, Switzerland (organizer) (April 5-7, 2019).
  • {{cite web|title=Name Announcer|url=false|author=Pierre Huyghe|year=2011|access-date=15 April 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2017.191