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if the shoe fits, it’s still not yours

June 6, 2008 11:03 am

Costumenational

Manolo Blahniks, Alexander McQueens, and other masterpieces of shoe design artistry littered the entrance to the opening of Pipilotti Rist’s video installation at Art Basel a couple of nights ago. The reason? Rist had posted a handwritten note in German and English urging viewers to “kiss your neighbor! And leave your lovely shoes by the door!” Obedient art fans entered the purple velvet-lined room, lay on red sofas, and watched a video of hippies rolling on the floor that was being screened on the ceiling. A day or two later, it seemed that a few non-flower children were hoping to top up their shoe selection from the stash by the door. When I emerged from Rist’s ode to love, I found another woman covetously clutching one of my Costume National wedges. After rescuing my shoe from her and hearing her mutter something (probably not very hippie-ish) in Italian before slinking away, I turned to the guard, who shrugged at the barely averted injustice: “Art,” she said, which seemed to be her cryptic suggestion that maybe I was not toeing the Rist line by refusing to share my shoes with the stranger.

—Ana Finel Honigman

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