Biography of Vito Acconci
The restless mind of Vito Acconci has always pushed him on to seek new challenges and directions. Continuously hammering at the limitations of the medium he is working on, Acconci has produced a diverse body of work in poetry, performance art, sound, film, sculpture, and photography. Born in the Bronx in 1940, Acconci would initially pool all his energies into writing and language. By the late 60s he was experimenting with photography and performance, exploring movements in space and adding text to document his actions.
Born in 1940, Vito Acconci was an early exponent of body art, he would make prints, Trademarks, 1970 from self-inflicted bite scars on his leg. By 1972 his performances, such as Seedbed—which saw the artist hidden beneath floorboards masturbating, his fantasies about the audience played out over loudspeakers—both shocked and engaged the audience.
In 1988, Vito set up Acconci Studio, an architectural practice undertaking commissions from around the world. Centered on utopian, biomorphic ideals, Acconci's architecture, much like his art, blurs the public and private space and focuses on social interactions. Acconci has been awarded the International Sculpture Centre's Lifetime Achievement Award and has his work in the permanent collection in the Guggenheim.
