Erik Niedling Ingo Niermann

2012

Artist Novel, 19.9 cm x 14 cm, 255 p, language: English, publisher: Berlin: Sternberg Press, ISBN: 978-3-943365-02-3 .
Materials: ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2025/537).

Literary synopsis

The Future of Art: A Diary by Erik Niedling with texts by Ingo Niermann and Tom McCarty. Average life expectancy can fool you into thinking you still have many years ahead. But what would it be like if you had only one left? What would you want to—what could you—experience in this limited period of time? Artist Erik Niedling would like to be buried in Pyramid Mountain, the largest tomb of all time, conceived by writer Ingo Niermann. To make this goal a reality, Niedling lives one year as though it were his last. The Future of Art: A Diary recounts the joys and horrors of that year. A response by Tom McCarthy examines the social and philosophical implications.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

The Last Year project was part of Niedling’s effort to build Pyramid Mountain—an artwork he acquired from Ingo Niermann in summer 2010—in order to design my personal burial chamber. The Future of Art: A Diary is the sequel of The Future of Art: A Manual by Ingo Niermann with Erik Niedling (Sternberg Press, Berlin 2011)

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