16/02/2026
Can Art lie or be a fake? Or does it sometimes have to?
A few years ago, I visited Damien Hirst's 'Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable' exhibition in Venice. This exhibition is composed of treasures uncovered off the coast of East Africa, and its accompanying documentary (Sam Hobkinson) records their discovery and exhibition. After entering the exhibit, I was immediately overwhelmed by the impact the art objects had on me. Due to the way the objects are built, which are covered with algae, seaweed, and mussel shells, I believed for quite some time that these treasures were real. It looked as if they had been buried for hundreds of years on the seabed. After a while, I realized the whole exhibition and documentary video were a total fabrication - a sham. When I found out, I ran out of the exhibition furiously in anger. Nothing else was on my mind other than shock and anger. Because I didn’t understand at that time that the materials Hirst was using wanted to mislead me in a way that implied to me that lies and fakes are around us more than ever before. Or to put it in another way, the fake shocks the viewer to create a moment of critical awareness.
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