Reconstruction der Stoppages-Étalon (1913/14) von Marcel Duchamp

In 1913/1914 Marcel Duchamp let a thread measuring one meter fall to the floor from a height of one meter three times. Duchamp’s idea was to suspend and relativize the standard gaugeas a fixed measurement, or to show that there is no absolute measure of all things. When the measuring stick becomes a measuring thread, then a variety of standard gauges of various lengths and various curvatures become possible. The involvement of the subject, of the body of the surveyor, overrides the normative force of scale. The observational standpoint symbolized by the involvement of the body puts the scale of measurement entirely into question. The universe is relative to the observer and thereby also is relative to measure. The human being as measure of all things can make no objective assertion about the universe. This clarification and condemnation of anthropocentrism is an essential feature of Duchamp’s artistic concept. Out of sympathy and empathy I reconstructed his vote for a participatory universe relative to the observer, precisely in regard to measuring the world himself – and thereby introduced the genre of reenactments.