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 artist: Gelatin
 Gelatin's website

The B Thing
Gelatin

32pp, colour throughout, embossed hard covers,
Walther König, Cologne, 2001
ISBN 3-8837-507-9, £20.00
sold out

The only legitimate proof of its activity is a piece of chewing gum placed by the group, stuck to the exterior of the building at a perilous height. (Art Monthly)

The Austrian collective, Gelatin, has gained an international reputation for ambitious projects that thrive on surprise and hyper-real bodily sensation. Each project pushes physical boundaries and audience expectations.

The B-Thing uncovers the truth behind the rumours of Gelatin's construction of an improvised balcony on the 91st floor of the World Trade Centre in New York in 2000. Through preparatory notes written by the boys, diagrams and colour photographs, we are finally able to glimpse the pink sunrise over New York from Gelatin's eyes and to see how their home-made balcony emerged like a 'pimple on the building's eelslippery face.'

The rumours continued however and Moukhtar Kocache, Director of Visual Art and Media at the WTC, felt the need to deny that the action ever took place, claiming that any documentation 'simply demonstrates [Gelatin's] art of deception.' Although he praised their success 'in addressing the mythological and iconic dimensions of America, New York and the Twin Towers,' and continued, '[they] use the system of the art world, a system they love to critique as a vehicle ... And because they are boys and like to play ...'

Suddenly, on 11 September 2001, this playful project became an historic document.