Animated GIF > released by Instituto Tomie Ohtake as an open call, 2017






                Fwd: Sorry for the Delay is a project seeking to resume interrupted email exchanges. By means of public invitations, the artist received dozens of messages — which had been without reply for days, months and even years — demanding the never written replies or apologizing for delaying their own reply. Throughout one month the artist acted as a mediator between senders and addressees, promoting a sort of temporary amnesty for delayed or unanswered emails.

                Currently, it is estimated that 145 billion e-mails are sent daily throughout the world, and that over 11 hours per week are spent reading and replying those messages. But this technology driven escalation simply reminds us of an ancient truth: just as any kind of financial transaction, also communication generates debt. It is a vicious circle, because it’s at the same time necessary and unpayable.

                It is what Argentinian writer Ricardo Piglia states in his novel Respiración Artificial, 1980: "It is not the case of taking correspondence as a financial debt, although in fact there is some connection between the two: messages are like letters of credit, which are received and owed. There is always a little remorse towards a friend to whom you owe a letter, and not always the joy of receiving a letter makes up for the obligation of replying it".






Views of the installation at Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, 2017
> adhesive vinyl and emails printed on color offset paper (690 x 230 cm)







Views of the installation at Slyzmud Gallery, Buenos Aires, 2017
> adhesive vinyl and vinyl cutout on glass (110 x 150 cm)




  credits
photography
Ricardo Miyada