Artist Eugenio Merino‘s lifesized, hyperrealistic sculpture of Andy Warhol is at the center of a installation at New York City’s UNIX Gallery. Complete with a “functioning souvenir shop” and “self-guided tour map of Warhol’s essential haunts,” “Here Died Warhol” toys with the idea of celebrity and tourism as an industry, with the chance to take selfies with the eerily realistic sculpture of Warhol. The experience is curated by Los Interventores and “explores the curiosity and motivation of Adjectival Tourism.” A similar installation, “Here Died Picasso,” gathered more than 20,000 to the Alliance Française in Málaga last year.
“The installation is a sharp critique of the mass tourism and the cultural industry of the city-brand, examining the clash between the rise of tourist attractions and the needs of the local population; where real is replaced by a false setting targeted at the visitor,” a statement says. “Here Died Warhol is the definitive opportunity to take a selfie with the artist and acquire those objects created to capitalize on the essence of the most famous Pop Art visionary; the sale of the artist ́s aura.”
“Here Died Warhol” runs April 6 through June 8. See more shots from the installation below.
