CHRISTIAN JANKOWSKI (B. 1968)

Jankowski convinced an auctioneer at the auction house Christie’s to sell the clothes off his own back: his jacket, his tie, his shoes, his socks, his shirt. One after another, his possessions (turned artworks by Jankowski) are sold to the highest bidder. In the end, the auctioneer is deprived not only of his clothes, but also of the symbol of his position: his hammer. The various stages of the performance were documented by an official photographer from Christie’s, and the live webcast served as the basis for the video Strip the Auctioneer. The artwork highlights the overlap between art’s symbolic value and its economic value through its burlesque, theatrical sales process.