GRAND THEFT VITO

DESCRIPTION

Modded version of Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar Games, 2008). Play as performance artist, architect, writer and philosopher Vito Acconci (b. 1940).

DATE

November 11, 2013

DOCUMENTATION

Six videos of approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds of gameplay footage fromGrand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar Games, 2008) . Soundtrack: audio excerpt from Vito Acconci/Acconci Studio: Interiors. Buildings. Parks. (2004) by Julia Loktev (b. 1969). Voice over: Vito Acconci. 

TEXT 

"The homeless body is somewhere in between the exploding body and the body politic. It is the body that is neither electronically dissolved nor politically determined. It is the body that remains whole but it is on the loose and on the run. If politics restores the body and preserves, wether as victim or victimizer then the homeless body is a body that is given one more chance. One last chance to get away from it all. The body is a wanderer as long as it's not a believer. The body is released now from prison or in front out of the house. The homeless body is up for grabs, the homeless body is out in the streets, where it takes what he can get, the homeless body is the body with no strings attached. The location of the political body is the city, where the contact with and the pressure with other bodies forces discussion, argument, and a potential revolution. The location of the homeless body is a park, the enclave within a city, where the body withdraws and takes time out, and dreams of plans a new city. If the occasion for the political body is life on earth, then the occasion for the homeless body is outer space." (Vito Acconci, 2004)