......
However, this was not my first thought. Let me rewind my impressions and share with you my reactions and thoughts.
I said "This", (the photographed installation), "is a big surprise in boldness and simplicity", but it's roots are spread amongst the ranks of important artists in Europe and Brazil. I wrote down my immediate thoughts without any edits to see if I could be honest in what I thought without reference to any resource other than my own impressions, rationale and memory and predjudices. I then sent this to Nicolas Claris so I wouldn't be able to cheat. I wanted to restrain my own taking advantage of learning more of the original work or the ideas of anyone else. Before I looked anything up, I thought of one more idea, #3a, a reference to Duchamp, that came to me immediately I'd sent my copy off to Nicolas!
1. It has the features of some heraldic flag, the way he's included the art object dispayed together with the white of the display base and the grey of the floor.
2. The art is a representation of an opened clam or mussel, (moule). These are "diving creatures. So it's a play on the shape.
3. The text, implying that "(This is a) Diving Body", a creature with behavior, is a play on the Magritte series of a pipe, Ce n'est pa une pipe"*. That was an existentialist argument with himself on what a painting was. It is after all, just a layer of ground up wood/ cotton with glue, (ie paper) and successive layers of pigment/dyes in the picture representing the pipe. It is, of course not actually a pipe.
3.a The use of a manufactured concrete basin, if that's what it truly is, would be referring to the Dadaist Duchamp throwing into the world of art a Urinal as a fountain, being scorned and then being accepted! So this work is in that spirit, defiant.
4. It inserts Cem's presence into the 3D space of the picture. we go from his feet on the ground to the reflection of his hands with the camera in the water of the basin. In his new version of the art work he has deconstructed the meaning of the work and it is no longer a diving body but one entangled with his presence and the floor.
5. Having taken over the "diving Body" as a prize, loot or booty, he has embedded it in a flag or banner for all to see. This is what knights do when they go on a mission and win a battle, joining themselves to history. They earn the right to celebrate their mastery by including that on their personal coat of arms.
I hope this unedited, uncorrected cascade of thoughts, (even for respect to syntax, except for insertion of 3a), is helpful. At least it's an honest representation of my gestalt interfacing with your work product and the contained original. Thanks for sharing and stimulating my brain. I have learned a little more today
Asher
*We discussed Magritte's challenges to representational art here.