Last Monday we went to the Eiffel Tower at midday. Nothing special about that except that this appointment had been on our calendar for over two years.We happened to see some envelopes in the bookshop at Tate Modern some time in 2006. The envelope (which was £1 by the way) said "Jonathan Monk" and inside were the words "13 octobre 2008 Tour Eiffel Midi" .We assumed it was a conceptual artist with quite a good idea.We have all made promises like that at some time and forgotten about them and it would be good to see who bothered to turn up and why.It appealed to our imagination.
So on Monday we two were there Jonathan.
Just before midday a few people holding envelopes spotted each other and we made a group which was probably about forty people.We waited for you to appear, perhaps with some bottles of champagne for our efforts or some clever happening to reward our patience. A couple of people who knew you, we assume, as they had a larger poster,appeared .That was just as well as they were able to explain to the police why we were not organising an attack on the Tour Eiffel.Eventually I think we were just marked down as weirdos with nothing better to do than wait for someone who had not turned up having paid £1 and waited, in one person's case 10 years! It seems the envelopes have been around in galleries in Europe all that time.
So what did we do? Take photos obviously, in groups and from odd angles. Someone recorded some video and a book was passed round for email addresses.We assume that you were watching somewhere and intend to do something with whatever you recorded since you are supposed to be an artist. If you were there you will know all this of course and most people who turned up seemed to take this non-event with good humour.I feel though that some people had invested more than others ; we were combining the visit with seeing friends, like others we spoke to, but what about the French woman who must have faithfully transferred this date to her new calendar for ten years.If nothing else she would feel foolish and in some way used.
I see no humour in this outcome even though most people might have laughed and shrugged their shoulders. But it went beyond 'playful' ; it felt as though we were being treated as lab rats to see what we would do and no artist should be allowed to indulge their ego like that. Maybe it was meant to be a sort of waiting for Godot situation and it could be intellectualised in many ways but I think you owe us Jonathan - even if it is only our money back.
PS. Perhaps the trouble is you went to Leicester Polytechnic Art School - like we did a long time ago. Is the picture above of you, I got it off a website?
