University of Primorska

University of Primorska

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES KOPER

Seminar paper

CONTEMPORARY

THE RHETORIC OF THE IMAGE

Prof. Anthony J. Cascardi

Stud. Maja Kastelic

Trebnje / Koper, May / June 2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.PREFACE

2.THE EXHIBITION

2.1.MEANING OF THE EXHIBITION

2.2.HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF EXHIBITING MODES

2.2.1.ON PUBLIC VIEW

2.2.2.TURNING POINTS IN 20TH CENTURY EXHIBITING PRACTICE

3.CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITION

3.1.TRANSFORMATION OF THE EXHIBITION SITE

3.2.ALTERATION OF THE ARTWORK

3.3.EXHIBITION CREATOR

3.4.PARTICIPATING AUDIENCE

4.CONCLUSION - THOUGHTS ON EXHIBITION AS A SPECTACLE

LITERATURE

1.PREFACE

Strategies for production and presenting images, as well as ways of their perception have changed significantly in postmodern culture. Some profound revaluations and alterations of the notion and content of culture, art, and knowledge happened in relation tojust as essential changeswithin the technological, political, economic and social field in 20th century. Due to persistent co-existenece of modern paradigms at side of prevailing post-modern conceptions, the sense of certainchange is even stronger.Postmodernism has -in opposition to the modern(istic) conception of linear, progressive and hierarchal course withinuniversal and autonomous art-establishedplural,heterogeneous and permissive(aka democratic) intertwine of diverse practices and beliefsthat could be best illustrated with Feyerabend’s famous proclamation that ‘anything goes’ (as long as it goes).Deconstruction of modernistic absolutes and regulating narrativesreleased new interpretations, contingency, and the merging of different cultural and social spheres.Most consequential, at least relating art, could have been the blurring of boundaries between high culture (elitistic, high / art) and popular culture (kitsch, mass / culture)together withenthusiasm foreclecticalmixing of different techniqes, patterns, stories etc.,and transpassing of various disciplines, genres and styles. Newly developed informational technology (television, video, internet) and mass media have beena proper medium for challenging traditional conventions and for inventing new forms of expression, but also capable means of over-visualisation, commodification and ideological derealization of contemporary society (Guy Debord, La Société du spectacle, 1967).

New media and postmodern stategiesinducedseemingly infinite extending of the concept of (contemporary) art, widening both in tems of meaning and of production - art and all its appearances, contents, purpouses,and meanings have become more heterogeneous and numerous than ever. No precedent society seems to be facing such concentration of images, such visual density and asthorough pervasion with visual, sensual and information data. Naturally, strategies for presenting images (or ideas) had to adopt as well. Historically, the perception of artwork was mainly reserved for small (but important) audiences, whereas in contemporary society we encounter restless struggle for the look of the public eye and a moment of its attention. Previous mainly static representations of isolated autonomous works of art transformed into dynamic experiencesadequate to contemporary life style, perception and expectation.

The change of exhibitory modes has beengreatly encouraged by recent changes in production and perception of art, and vice versa – separate inovative presentations can and did modify both ways of perception and trends in production. In relation to exhibition, the transformation seems to be closely related to the redefinitions of 1) the exhibition space, 2) the artwork, 3) the artist and4) the audience, in ways that will be discussed further on.

2.THE EXHIBITION

2.1.MEANING OF THE EXHIBITION

“Exhibition is primary site of exchange in the political economy of art, where signification is constructed, maintained and occasionally deconstructed. Part spectacle, part socio-historical event, part structuring device, exhibitions – especially exhibitions of contemporary art – establish and administer the cultural meaning of art.”[1]

The number and range of exhibitions as well as the number and variety of visitors are said tohave ‘increased dramatically’ in recent years; documenta12 (2007) is marking ‘an increase without parallel’, 49th International Art Exhibiton in Venice (2001) registered the larges participation of foreign countries in its history (63) and a record number of visitors (243,000) over the last 20 years, another record was done last year at 52nd Biennale(2007) with the highest result in the last 25 years (320,000 visitors in a 165-day opening period).[2] An unrestrained growth of contemporary art events world wide is taking place (Istanbul Biennial, Liverpool Biennial, Biennale of Sydney, Manifesta, São Paulo Art Biennial, Singapore Biennale, Johannesburg Biennale etc.) and due to newer interest and, notheless, newer meaning of such eventsthere has been more theoretical interest on the subject lately in form of publications, conferences and courses (Thinking about exhibitions volume in 1996, Curating in the 21st century, 2000,Reinventing the Museum, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift, 2004, New Museum Theory and Practice, 2005)[3].

Exhibition as a form of public presentation has been majorly important for the artistsand dominators ever since its historical appearance in 18th century. Still, contemporary exhibition seems to possess yet different, more influential and possibly more elusive potentialsthan salons and l’expositions,both for the artistical practice as for the wider understanding of art and visual paradigms, since it bears the meaning of 1) the medium, 2) the institution and lately also 3) the meaning of an independent form of expression.

Exhibition’s privileged position at the center of the art scene grants it enormous weight as a medium. Primarily it has always been the means of communication between artist and his, both laic and professional audiences.Placed at the intersection of all activites within the contemporary art field, an exhibition has been summarizing as well as finalizing all preceding levels of art formation to present the principal point of artistic, curatorialand sponsorian endeavour – namely, the representation of certain images, meanings and values. However, the medium of the exhibition, like all media, both commands and is commanded by a host of other media: exhibition space architecture, explanatory wall labels, lighting, wall color, exhibition catalogues, and of course, the art or artifacts themselves.[4] The whole of it form a ‘strategic system of representations’ that mold the cultural meanings and receptions of the artworks and objects displayed.As such the exhibition is being able to generate the very understanding of art (and world) in certain time and space.

Furthermore, as institution it synthesizes the processes of recognition, selection, promotion, and further impartation (post-production) of objects into works of art. In spite ofgeneral absence of objective art criteria in postmodernity, exhibition is providing a space for legitimation and subsequent confirmation of artworks, artists and, lately curators, since it forms the ultimate frame: the all-enveloping medium of the art world, the conduit through which the majority of artists’ work must pass to be considered a work of art at all.[5]

Recently, exhibition is also being appreciatedincreasingly as an independent art form. It exceeded the task of merely showing art andtransformed into a rather independent system of display, discourse, interpretation, and reflection.Due to the ability for independent formation of new contents and modes of visualitythe exhibition obtained the artistical value,previuosly bound to anindividual art object– thus the exhibition itself became an art (object). There is a trend among important museums and art galleries (Tate, Whitney Museum of American Art) for displaying their permanent collections as a series of temporary exhibitions, which proves the interest for possibilities offered by such exhibition.

2.2.HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF EXHIBITING MODES

2.2.1.ON PUBLICVIEW

Anart exhibition is a phenomenon related to the emergence of civil society in late 17th and 18th centuries when previously reserved displays of artworks opened for the wider and general public for the first time; paintings and sculpture have of course been on displaybefore, but never earlierin such a permissible fashion, on everyone’s view. The first and most notable institution of such practice was the Paris Salon,established on regular basis in 1737. The expression ‘to exhibit’ developed at the same time - though initially not used exclusively for art, it did refer generally to showing in public, i.e.“toshow [something] publicly for the purposes of amusement or instruction, or in a competition.”[6]

Salon of 1787, Pietro Antonio Martini, 1787 / The Main Room at the 1895 Biennale in Venice

First shows employed nospecialexposition method or genre distinction, havingnumerous paintingsof all sort and subjects crowdedly placed frame to frame and floor to ceiling in vast courtly hallsin“an ingenious mosaicof frames without a patch of wasted wall.”[7]The sole regulation of such quantitative presentation was the method of setting best work in the middle on the eye-level, larger up and sometimes tiled out, and smaller at the bottom.

In the second half of the 19th century the new awareness about the effects of installation appeared, and a consciousness of how the relationship between a viewer and an object could and should be mediated through presentation. Such understanding emerged in correspondence with 1) reqirements of modern artists and of the emerging art-market, 2) industrial culture, historicism, scientification and their aspiration for classification, and 3) the new science of advertising, with its psychologizing of design in terms of obtaining attention and attraction. It all induced thinking over the possibilities for more efficient and appealing organization, selection and promotion of exhibitions and proposed fresh analogical, historical, thematic, or environmental interpretations. New exhibition types appeared, such as monographic, retrospective and art movement shows, or thematic and culturally specific exhibitions.[8] Still, in relation to the individual work such formations remain subsidiary and subsequent to individual work at the time.Early modern exhibitions were set in provisional edifices made solely for the purpose of an independent exhibition (Pavillon du Réalisme, 1855; Salon des refusés, 1863;Salon des Indépendants, 1884) and have already presented linear arrangement in a single or double level with interspaces between works. At the beginning there were still many decorative elements and furniture for a pleasant and more familiar experience for visitors, but in the following decades‘clearer’gallery model prevailed, establishing a secluded, isolated, and undisturbed environment with exposed (possibly white) walls for accented display of individual exhibits (MOMA, 1939).“Some of the sanctity of the church, the formality of the courtroom, the mystique of the experimental laboratory joins with chic design to produce a unique chamber of aesthetics,”[9] was a directive for the arrangment of the “modern cult room for the mystic transformation of things into works of art.”[10] Inside of such space the artworks have been isolated from everything that would detract it from its own evaluation, bearing studies and contemplationof acquainted and devoted audience only.

The conception of predominant ‘high’ modernism had a strong parallel in avantgarde aspirations that challenged static, consecrated modes and initiated subversive installations enriched with latent meanings and subjective interpretationsinstead. By constant movement at the very edge of the known and established art field, they assist in revaluations and expansion of art throughout the century, importantly influencing postmodern stategies of display as well.

2.2.2.TURNING POINTS IN 20TH CENTURY EXHIBITING PRACTICE

The concept of the exhibition has been modified throughout the century - accompaning, supporting, and sometimes initiating the alteration of art itself. A constant need for new or more appropriate ways for presentation resulted in a numerous count of interesting, intriguing, decisive andeventually, consequential practices. The following list, though indispensably partial and deficient, is pointing out a few such examplesto give a sense of certain tendencies and possibilites within (con)temporary art exhibition.

The first example of an art exhibition / installation is thought to be El Lissitzky’s Proun made in 1923, a special overall arrangement and synchronisation of works in and with the gallery space. Another similar case is Room for constructive art made by the same author in 1926, a presentation of his works and works of his colleague artists Mondrian, Picabia, Gabo, and Moholy-Nagy which were set in with interactive interventions such as movable panels and colored walls. The installation drew attention to the setting itself, thus ‘exhibiting’ the exhibition as such. The Constitution of the Soviets and The Newspaper Transmissions from 1928 is notable for using new technology – El Lissitzky used huge photographic reproductions – which acknowledged exhibition design asa new discipline within the field of visual communication.[11]

El Lissitzky, Proun, 1923 / El Lissitzky, Room for constructive art, 1926

International Exhibition of Surrealismtook placein New York in 1938. Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, Man Ray and others prepaired a rather scandalous exhibiton that was no more just about viewing, but has presented an integral experience, structured as a flow of pulsating sensations, using liquids and perfumes, arrangements of labyrinths and passages, unexpected settings etc. alltogether to stimulate senses of touch, smell, taste, hearing sight, sex. Another ‘disturbing’ but innovative presentation was held at the First Papers of Surrealismexhibition in 1942 when Duchamp presentedSixteen Miles of String, which was a 3D string web spreading throughout the rooms and over the work, in some cases making it almost impossible to see them at all, again calling attention to the setting itself.

International Exhibition of Surrealism, Paris, 1938 / First Papers of Surrealism, 1942, New York;

Marcel Duchamp, Sixteen Miles of String

Frederick J. Kiesler’s Surrealist Gallery at the Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of this Centurygalley(since 1942) was an expression of the visitor's active role in experiencing art. All the displays were constructed so that viewing heights and angles could be fully adjusted to suit the visitors. An essential idea of many Kiesler’s installations was to engage the passive viewer in the reception of works of art (Blood Frames, Hugo Gallery, 1947 – suspending a painting from the ceiling andsurrounding it with veils to induce interaction).[12] Though this, and many following settings, was a double-edged situation because it both activated the viewers with a comprehensive range of perceptions and controlled them with those very means at the same time.[13]

Frederick J. Kiesler, Gallery for abstract and cubist art, Art of This Century, New York, 1942

In 1958 Yves Klein presented The Void, or Le vide, or The isolation of sensibility in a state of primary matter stabilized by pictorial sensibility set in Galerie Iris Clert Paris.The showing was actually an empty gallery painted white(by the artist himself) with an empty glass case and invisible pictures produced by the mental effort of the artist. There were also blue arrangements at the entrance, garde répuiblicaine, urine-turning-blue coctail and the intention of illuminating the Place de la Concord obelisk with blue light, all tending the sense of the ‘real blue’, which the artist was able to see in the white room. The Voidwas not an actual exhibition, but more - exhibiton as a transcendental gesture, and a performance that invited new comprehensions of art and of exhibition options.[14]

Yves Klein, Le vide/The Void,Paris, 1958

Following in the 60s, Allan Kaprow and others set happenings and environments within a gallery, thus acknowledging the exhibition space not solely as the place where work is presented, but also as the place where it is being created through special procedures and performances. The frst happening is thought to be Allan Kaprow’s18 Happenings in 6 Parts, set in New York in1959 – exhibition / performance was settled as an interactive environment that included, actually “manipulated the audience to a degree virtually unprecedented in 20th century art.”[15]

Another example is the concept of Szeemann’s exhibition Live in Your Head - When Atittudes Become Form of 1969, where artistswere working on site as part of exhibition.

Allan Kaprow, 18

Happenings in 6 parts, 1959

Dylaby,a dynamic labyrinth at Stedelijk museum in 1962 was another visceral experience of art. Six artists made an environment extending through six rooms, using mainly civilizational debris that after the show returned to the rubbish bins and depositories. The aim was again to include the audience by confusing their sense of orientation, frighten them and allow them to touch things.[16]

Martial Raysse, Beach / Daniel Spoerri, Installation,

Dylaby, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1962

Conceptual and performative practites have been, apart from placing certain happenings inside of the site,also exhibiting documentary data, models, schema, photographic material, texts, notes etc. as a substitute, or partof the artwork (in land art, fluxus, neodada, procesual, minimal, postminimal, conceptual art, performance,happening).

Yves Klein, Anthropométries, Paris, 1960 / Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965

Harald Szeemann introduced a figure of an influential curator in the exhibition practice. He initiated the principle of selecting artworks according to a subjective curatorial or/and overall thematic concept, thus cancelling the previous board selection based on work’s individual quality or novelty.The concept has been (rather radically) exercised in 1972 at Documetna 5, Befragung der Realiteat: Bildwelten Heute.

Jan Hoet’s Chambres d’Amisfrom 1986, a series of exhibitions placed in domestic spaces, and Skulptur Projekte Münster, an exhibition of sculptures in public places in the town of Münster, Germany (since 1977) notify another change, namely the expansion of art settings deeper into private and public spheres.

Münster Skulptur Projekte 2007: Bruce Nauman, Sqare Depression / Hans-Peter

Feldmann, Public Toilet Facilities at Domsplatz

Another sort of diffusion isindicated byFrance Morin’s projects The Quiet in the Land (Everyday Life, Contemporary Art, and the Shakers, 1995 / Projecto Axe, 1997 / Art, Spirituality, and Everyday Life, Luang Prabang, Lao PDR, 2004)that engage with a cultivation of ethic through aesthetics, making ‘real’ interventions in specific living environments. The project is ultimately transpassing different fields of experience, and also creating new concepts for making and presenting art.[17]