Art - Space - Public II

According to Alan Gilbert, there is a certain relation between politics and imagination that determine artworks effect on public realm. The gesture of artist makes an artwork shallow, didactic, arrogant or poetic, subtle, sublime, magical. Discussions about transformative experiences and political statement of artworks, during the previous class made me wander the similarities and diversities between the experience of politically and socially engaged artworks and the experience for experience’s sake oriented ones.

The experience of artwork has different dimensions. For public art, The artist experiences it in real time by producing it within his/her own perspective, the audience in the public space experiences it individually or collaboratively by participating, the audience of the documentation of the work, experiences it later on by observing the “actual” participants within a timeless and spaceless context. It can be claimed it is easier to be convinced the transformative or the magical power of experience -if there is one- for someone who directly interacted with it. The interaction itself powerful enough to make someone feel special and important, to feel as a part of something extraordinary in an ordinary life, yet for the one who perceives it through a photograph, video or installation it is harder to do and requires something deeper and sophisticated to relate in that timeless and spaceless moment.

Joseph Beuys, Ausfegen (Sweeping Up), May 1st, 1972

Nicolas Bourriaud defines the concept of  Relational Aesthethics as " A set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space." The common issues that provoke and stimulate an individual in a very primitive way and used by many artists after 1960's such as gender, minority, migration, identity, ethics, labor can be considered as a part of that set. Animal rights, human rights and "right to the city" can be added to them as well. The issues that become medium in the mediumless-ness of contemporary art. They are not the titles of political messages that flow from artist to audience through the artwork, nor life lessons to be taught. They are the motivation behind the artwork that occurs to the artist, the experience and concerns of the artist about something greater than some inner struggles or existentialistic breakdowns. It is not necessarily pessimistic and dark attitude to look over the human kind, but it is a critical eye. It is not something that has been done to change the world and make it a better place but something that people who perceives it can understand and figure out the reasons their ungratefulness’ or gratefulness’ in order to be transformed.

http://www.e-flux.com/journal/allegories-of-art-politics-and-poetry/

http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=698

Art - Space - Public

Public space is political. It is political because it is where confrontation, common action and reconciliation happen. It is where we configure the relation our body with it. It is the playground of individuality and collectivity. Hence, as the boundaries between private and public space gets blurred, same happens to art production.

According to Groys; since Duchamp, the labor of division has collapsed in art context and art making is equal to displaying art. Subjects become objects. That attitude which emerged from Dadaism opened a new perspective for artists and eventually for the viewers.

The act of displaying art and using non-artistic materials made the space part of the work, which cannot be ignored while experiencing the work. As Kurt Schwitters showed with his work “Merzbau”, there was not a point where artwork ends and space begins anymore. As Fluxus artists showed there was no linear relation between disciplines of art and life anymore. Artwork become something to get in, to sit on, to touch and change or even complete. Instead of something beautiful to look at, it become the practice of everyday life that needs to co-exist with public.

Change of production and comprehension of the artworks changed the issues as well. Since public space is political the issues and motivations of artworks get political to. Participation, community, collectivity, intersubjectivity, migration, gender, identity and minority are some of the key concepts that public art nourished from. Taking those concepts back to where they come from, to the public space, is an opportunity to get closer “gesamtkunstwork” and experience what has not experienced yet.

Art Spaces II

Considering space as a major reference and criteria reveals specialized sub-concepts in art production. Space becomes a medium in the manner of land art, site-specific art, and public installations while boundaries between disciplines collapse within those scopes. Using the nature both as an exhibition space and a material source in land art, reading a built environment with its flaws and unique qualities in site specific art, reclaiming the public space all over again through public installations open up new field of possibilities. The temporality of such approaches, the fleeting texture of attitudes and the coincidental encounters in public realm bring a depth to artworks with a different kind of experiment and most of the time; free the artwork from identical white cubes.

Art Spaces I

Every act of art has an undeniable and unbreakable relation with space even if it is intentional or not. However, hanging a painting on a wall or putting a sculpture to a public space comprise a different kind of comprehension of the space than hanging a specific painting on a specific wall or putting a site-specific sculpture to a public space. Space has potential to get more layers when it is defined by an artwork as artwork has potential to get more layers when its roots are strictly connected to the space that it is surrounded. I have an urge to find answers to those questions in order to generate new ones: How can the boundaries between an artwork and space can disappear? How can space be manipulated in order to evolve a natural exhibition space? What would be the evolution of the term “exhibition” when boundaries disappear? What are different ways of relating art to a space in different mediums? What is the role of architecture in that context?