Dora Budor, Protagonist Systematics | 38 St Marks Editions Portfolio

In a performative act of cinematic doubling, Dora Budor’s durational performance MANICOMIO!, staged at Frieze New York in 2017, is a living portrait, made using a compressed timeframe. The artist enlisted three Leonardo DiCaprio impersonators to roam the art fair and surrounding grounds on Randall’s Island, each dressed as a character and performing a role that the Oscar-winning actor has played: Frank Abagnale Jr. (Catch Me If You Can), Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street), and Hugh Glass (The Revenant). The series’ title, defined as “madhouse” in Italian, references the shouts from the audience following the 1921 premiere of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author at the Teatro Valle in Rome, in addition to aptly describing the sensation of acute paranoia elucidated by these works that question the slippery nature of overlapping fictions and reality, surveillance and perception. DiCaprio’s possible presence, or rumored presence, at major art events, has become part of the experience. This print features a photograph of the Jordan Belfort- impersonator reading The Financial Times on the shore of the island.

Dora Budor (b. 1984 in Croatia) lives and works in New York. Recent exhibitions include The Trick Brain at the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut (2017); Being There at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2017); Art Encounters 2017 at the Timisoara Biennale, Timisoara, Romania (2017); 7th Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art at the Manege Hall, Moscow (2017); FADE IN 2: EXT. MODERNIST HOME – NIGHT at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (2017); Le Reve des formes at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017); and Spring at Swiss Institute, New York (2015).

Dora Budor
Protagonist Systematics
2017
Matte Photographic C-Print
Edition of 38
Signed and Numbered