The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 13, 2025
Centers
1971
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
In Vito Acconci’s Centers, the artist faces the camera, attempting to keep his finger pointed at the exact center of the screen. This performative test of endurance is also a conceptual exploration of the video screen as novel framing device.Description
In Centers, Vito Acconci faces the camera head-on, attempting to keep his finger directed at the exact center of the screen, which displays his own image. In pointing at himself, the artist also points at the viewer, creating a tension between the two. Of the film, Acconci wrote, “The result (the TV image) turns the activity around: a pointing away from myself, at an outside viewer—I end up widening my focus onto passing viewers (I’m looking straight out by looking straight in).” Acconci started his career in the 1960s as a poet. By the end of the decade, he was a leading figure in the fields of performance, sound, and video art.- 2020(Electronic Arts Intermix, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)2020-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Vito Acconci: Centers. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 27-September 7, 2025).Pioneers: Part Two. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 2, 2019-March 13, 2020).
- {{cite web|title=Centers|url=false|author=Vito Acconci|year=1971|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.265