Saâdane Afif creates a meta-artwork based on Marcel Duchamp's urinal

In 1917, artist Marcel Duchamp sent an upturned porcelain urinal, signed under the pseudonym R. Mutt, to the Society of Independent Artists in New York to be exposed. The work was named Fountain and is today the most famous readymade artwork in history.

The action of converting a mass-produced and commonly used object into a piece of art was conscious and deliberate. It had two goals: to demystify the aesthetic essence of art and to check its limits. As expected, the organising committee rejected it, and the piece disappeared. However, Duchamp counterattacked with the reproduction of a photo taken by photographer Alfred Stieglitz and an article by Louise Norton titled 'The Richard Mutt Case' published inThe Blind Man magazine. Norton compared this artwork to 'a lovely buddha' and 'the legs of the ladies by Cezanne'.

A hundred years later, Duchamp's Fountain has become the most controversial and commented artwork of the 21st century, to the point that Saâdane Afif has been compiling since 2008 all printed documentation he could find surrounding the debate to create a monumental project.

The Fountain Archives consist of three elements: Firstly, the active part of the project, which contains the pages of publications, books, catalogues and magazines that attempt to reproduce a picture — even if small — of this icon. The pages have been carefully torn out, framed and inventoried, creating a brand new readymade.

Secondly, the mould or passive part of the project, which consists of the books from which the pages were taken. This museumised library creates a negative archive, a piece without its object – giving it a sculptural character.

Thirdly, the element named Fountain Archives (Augmented), which gathers all the pages from publications with comments generated by Afif's exhibition. These clippings create "the archive within the archive" and point out the evolution of the perceptions of the artwork itself by critics and journalists.

True to his way of doing things since the inauguration of the Lyrics protocol for the Melancholic Beat exhibition in 2004, Afif has commissioned Ignasi Aballí and Alícia Kopf to write songs inspired by the Fountain. Including these songs, there will be 25 musical compositions about the piece. A selection of this repertoire will be available at the exhibit.

Plan and book your visit, buy the tickets and cancel, if necessary, up until 11.59 pm on the day before on the Foundation's website.