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Opening Moves
(Valuable Qualities of the Mind to be Acquired as to Become Habits)

2011

suspended prop piece

vintage chessboard
(50 x 60 cm), two oak plates
(65 x 40 cm / 58 x 33 cm)
with three engraved synthetic plaques affixed to the plate's edges (one on the larger plate, two on the smaller one) and newspaper clippings (on each
of the two other ones' edges), suspension devices, steel wires.
Unique (+1 E.C.)

Photo: Amélie Chassary
© Vittorio Santoro
Installation view: Rosascape, Plateforme d'édition et de création contemporaines, Paris, June 2011

The person who exhibits the work decides on which chess-
board square the one oak's
plate angle will be positioned.
On one of the two borders of each wooden plates, one engraved text on synthetic plaque and a newspaper clip-
ping are applied, respectively. The plates may be suspended
in one direction or the other.
By deciding which side to sus-
pend, one decides de facto
to show the engraved texts
and to impede the sight of the newspaper clipping, and vice versa.

The two engraved texts read:
- Alekhine's Defence: 1. e4 Nf6;
- Mirrors generate left-right reversal / But not up-down inversion

***

Chess games are loosely divided in three phases: the opening, middlegame and endgame. A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a game (the "opening moves"). Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian Defence or Alekhine's Defence. The ALEKHINE’S DEFENSE (named after Alexander Alekhine, who introduced it in the 1921 Budapest) is an underrated alternative for a player seeking a fighting defense that begins with the moves: 1. e4 Nf6. It avoids the reams of analysis associated with the Sicilian Defense, but it is forcing and offers white few choices that avoid an unbalanced game. It is also helpful that many white players under-
estimate it and spend more time on other defenses. The Ale-
khine's defence has a provoc-
ative strategy of tempting the White pawns forward, and as we all know pawns cannot go back-
wards!

I was very much tempted to work on a sculptural object having in mind these informa-
tion about the Alekhine's defence: the risky strategy,
the confrontational attitude,
and the connected expectations.

vs_nyc_may 2011