Sleight of Hand

Sleight of Hand is a two-channel video that draws its grammar from the heist film genre, while also referencing investigative aesthetics. In it, the artist himself enters the British Museum with the intention of appropriating an ancient coin during a demonstration, using an elaborate legerdemain trick. The video follows the artist-thief until he reaches the museum exit, where he places the stolen coin into a donation box. The recording was made by collaborators that were acting according to a precise choreography orchestrated in advance. On the second channel of the video, 3D models create a different kind of perspective, showing the planning and the execution of the heist, sometimes mimicking institutional surveillance while exposing its own artifice.

The work, accompanied by the letters that the Legal Services of the British Museum sent to the artist, the responses written by the artist, and a series of documents showing the security camera perspective of the action and internal bureaucratic communication, raises debates around value, property, the historical violence of law and its role in legitimising looting as a tool for the foundation of “universal museums” such as the institution in question.

Credits

Sleight of Hand, 2023-2024
UA trick planned, performed and directed by Ilê Sartuzi 
Original soundtrack: Bruno Palazzo 
Legal advice: A.A. 

Coin replica made in collaboration with Zee Tao
Architectural 3D modelling: Vitor Borges Candido
3D animation: Ilê Sartuzi 
Additional cameras: Maomi Meindl, Melle Nieling, Jiaying Ding

Ilê Sartuzi

Ilê Sartuzi lives between São Paulo and London. He graduated in Fine Arts from the University of São Paulo (USP) and holds a master’s degree from Goldsmiths, University of London. Sartuzi has been a recipient of the PIPA Prize (2021) and the Bienal de Artes Mediales Award (2022). He has presented solo exhibitions at Luisa Strina, NıCOLETTı, the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of São Paulo, Pedro Cera, SESC Pompéia and at the auroras art space in São Paulo. Sartuzi participated in exhibitions at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Instituto Moreira Salles, Videobrasil, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), Kunstverein Ludwigshafen and the Museu de Arte de Ribeirão Preto (MARP). His works are part of public and private collections, including the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, the coleção moraes-barbosa, the PIPA Institute, Videobrasil, and the British Museum.

www.ilesartuzi.com