Drifting through Cityscapes Drifting through Cityscapes MTL final copy | Page 25

VITO ACCONCI
The Following Piece
In the fall of 1969, Acconci randomly select-
ed and then followed individual passersby
he encountered in New York City, main-
taining his pursuit until the person entered a
building. The process varied in length from
a few minutes to several hours and took the
artist around Manhattan and into Brook-
lyn, Queens, and the Bronx, as shown in the
work’s central map. Though this stalking was
aggressive, by allowing a stranger to deter-
mine his route the artist gave up a certain de-
gree of agency. He said, “I am almost not an
‘I’ anymore; I put myself in the service of this
scheme.” A typescript lays out the terms of
the “scheme,” and this photocollage docu-
ments several of the actions.