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When Does a Hole Become a Sculpture?
What happens when an artwork is indistinguishable from a construction site, a failed swimming pool, or a grave large enough to unsettle the neighbors?
After years of criticism for his performances, Svej Evfsjodly shifted from performance art to excavation. In a rented vegetable garden near Leuven, he spent nearly a week digging a large rectangular pit entirely by hand. The resulting work, “Proposal for a Hole”, contained nothing except displaced earth, traces of labor, and an uncomfortable sense that something should be there but is not.
Evfsjodly described the piece as “a sculpture made entirely of absence.” Visitors were allowed to circle the excavation but forbidden to enter it, a restriction the artist claimed preserved “the integrity of the void.”
Critics rejected the work almost immediately. Some dismissed it as “rural minimalism,” while others argued that the piece was visually indistinguishable from ordinary landscaping.
Svej Evfsjodly, “Proposal for a Hole”, 2024. Excavated earth, displaced soil, ladder, and manual labor. Variable dimensions. Museum of Modern Art, Department of Rejected Artists. Physical excavation retained by the artist. NFT acquired by the museum in 2025. ©️ Svej Evfsjodly. Photo by Jean Chapeau.
