Krzysztof Wodiczko's 'If You See Something…' at Galerie Lelong

Krzysztof Wodiczko's exhibition 'If You See Something…' at Galerie Lelong in New York (September 10 – October 22, 2005) transforms the gallery into a space of surveillance and suspicion. The title references the New York subway announcement 'If you see something, say something,' a post-9/11 mantra that Wodiczko critiques as an ambiguous, fear-inducing message. Instead of his usual monumental building projections, Wodiczko presents four intimate video projections on frosted glass windows, depicting everyday scenes—conversations, dogs, window washers—overlaid with voices recounting real cases of abuse of power by authorities. The work explores themes of biopolitics, referencing Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault, and is structured around a triadic principle of ethics, politics, and psychology. The process involved connecting with abuse victims, building trust, and filming; during the opening, a lawyer offered to support one victim. A second installation commemorates American victims and survivors of the Iraq War, using sound from soldiers' combat recordings to make candle flames flicker—'talking flames,' as Wodiczko calls it. The artist was also commissioned to create a memorial for the abolition of slavery in Nantes, planned for 2006.