HOI FostCt

Cho RoomsJ J2004

!nc An|opnonc rcccp|ion o] rc|o|iono| or| nos cccn rc|o|ivc| cc|o|cJ. ln |nc
]o||owin |cx|, oriino|| wri||cn o book rcvicw o] 8ourriouJ's Relational
Aesthetics onJ Postproduction, onJ Hons U|ricn 0cris|'s lnterviews, Ho| Fos|cr
cxprcsscs rcscrvo|ions ocou| |nc op|imis|ic rnc|oric occomponin co||ocoro|ion
onJ por|icipo|ion.
ln an art allery over the last decade you miht have happened on one of the
followin. A room empty except for a stack of identical sheets of paper - white,
sky-blue, or printed with a simple imae of an unmade bed or birds in fliht - or
a mound of identical sweets wrapped in brilliant coloured foil, the sweets, like
the paper, free for the takin. Dr a space where office contents were dumped in
the exhibition area, and a couple of pots of Thai food were on offer to visitors
puzzled enouh to liner, eat and talk. Dr a scatterin of bulletin boards, drawin
tables and discussion platforms, some dotted with information about a famous
person from the past Frasmus Darwin or Robert McNamara), as thouh a
documentary script were in the makin or a history seminar had ust finished.
Dr, finally, a kiosk cobbled toether from plastic and plywood, and filled, like a
homemade study-shrine, with imaes and texts devoted to a particular artist,
writer or philosopher Fernand Ler, Raymond Carver or Cilles Deleuze). Such
works, which fall somewhere betwecn a public installation, an obscure
performance and a private archive, can also be found outside art alleries,
renderin them even more difficult to decipher in aesthetic terms. They can
nonetheless be taken to indicate a distinciive turn in recent art. ln play in the
first two examples - works by Felix Conzalez-Torres and by Rirkrit Tiravania -
is a notion of art as an ephemeral offerin, a precarious ift as opposed to an
accredited paintin or sculpture), and in the second two instances by Liam
Cillick and by Thomas Hirschhorn), a notion of art as an informal probin into a
specifc fure or event in history or politics, fiction or philosophy. Althouh each
type of work can be taed wth a theoretical pedree n the frst case, 'the ft'
as seen by Marcel Mauss, say, or in the second 'discursive practice' accordin to
Michel Foucault), the abstract concept is transformed into a literal space of
operations, a pramatic way of makin and showin, talkin and bein.
The prominent practitioners of this art draw on a wide rane of precedents:
the everyday obects of Nouveau Ralisme, the humble materials of Arte Povera,
the participatory strateies of Lyia Clark and Hlio Diticica and the 'institution-
l90//CRITICAL AND CURATORIAL PO5ITION5
critical' devices of Marcel Broodthaers and Hans Haacke. But these artists have
also transformed the familiar devices of the readymade obect, the collaborative
pro|ect and the installation format. For example, some now treat entire TV
shows and Hollywood films as found imaes: Pierre Huyhe has reshot parts of
the Al Pacino movie Do Do Aj!cmoon with the real-life protaonist a reluctant
bank robber) returned to the lead role, and Doulas Cordon has adapted a couple
of Hitchcock films in drastic ways his Hour Pscno slows down the oriinal to
a near-catatonic runnin time). For Cordon, such pieces are 'time readymades'-
that is, iven narratives to be sampled in lare imae-pro|ections a pervasive
medium in art today) - while Nicolas Bourriaud, a co-director of the Palais de
Tokyo, a Paris museum devoted to contemporary art, champions such work
under the rubric of 'postproduction'. This term underscores secondary
manipulations editin, effects and the lke) that are almost as phnounced n
such art as in film, it also suests a chaned status of the 'work' of art in the ae
of information which has succeeded the ae of production. That we are now in
such a new era is an ideoloical assumption, nonetheless, in a world of
shareware, information can appear as the ultimate readymade, as data to be
reprocessed and sent on, and some of these artists do worl as Bourriaud says,
'to inventory and select, to use and download', to revise not only found imaes
and texts but also iven forms of exhibition and distribution.
Dne upshot of this way of workin is a 'promiscuity of collaborations'
Cordon), in which the Postmodernist complications of oriinality and
authorship are pushed beyond the pale. Take a collaborative work-in-proress
such as No Cnos!]us! o 5ncll led by Huyhe and Philippe Parreno. A few years ao
they found out that a |apanese animation company wanted to sell some of its
minor characters; they bouht one such person-sin, a irl named Annlee, and
nvited other artsI> to use her n their work Here the artwork becomes a 'chain'
of pieces. for Huyhe and Parreno, No Cnos!]us! o 5nc|l is 'a dynamic structure
that produces forms that are part of it'; it is also 'the story of a community that
finds itself in an imae'. lf this collaboration doesn't make you a little nervous is
the buyin of Annlee a esture of liberation or of serial bondae?), consider
another roup pro|ect that adapts a readymade product to unusual ends. in this
work, |oe Scanlan, Dominique Conzalez-Foerster, Cillick, Tiravani|a and others
show you how to customize your own coffin from lkea furniture. its title is Dl/
or How Kill Yoursc|] Anywncrc in !nc WorlJ ]or unJcr 5J.
The tradition of readymade obects, from Duchamp to Damien Hirst, is often
mockin of hih andjor mass culture or both, i n these examples it is mordant
about lobal capitalism as well. Yet the prevalent sensibility of the new work
tends to be innocent and expansive, even ludic - aain an offerin to other
people andjor an openin to other discourses. At times a benin imae of
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lcbalizaticn is advanced it is a preccnditicn fcr this very internaticnal rcup
cf artists), and there are utcpian mcments, tcc: Tiravan(ja, fcr example, has
cranized a 'massive-scale artist-run space' called 'The Land' in rural Thailand,
desined as a ccllective 'fcr sccial enaement'. Mcre mcdestly, these artists aim
tc turn passive viewers intc a tempcrary ccmmunity cf active interlccutcrs. ln
this reard Hirschhcrn, whc cnce wcrked in a Ccmmunist ccllective cf raphic
desiners, sees his mal:eshift mcnuments tc artists and philcscphers as a
species cf passicnate pedacy - they evcke the ait-prcp kicsks cf the Russian
Ccnsttictivists as well as the cbsessive ccnstructicns cf Schwitters.
Hirschhcm seeks tc 'distribute ideas', 'radiate enery' and 'liberate activity' all at
cnce: he wants nct cnly tc familiarize his audience with an alternative public
culture but tc libidinize this relaticnship as well. Dther artists, scme cf whcm
were trained as scientists such as Carsten Hller) cr architects Stefanc Bceri),
adapt a mcdel cf ccllabcrative research and experiment clcser tc the labcratcry
cr the desin firm than the studic. 'l take the wcrd "studic" literally', Cabriel
Drczcc remarks, 'nct as a space cf prcducticn but as a time cf kncwlede.'
'A prcmiscuity cf ccllabcraticns' has alsc meant a prcmiscuity cf
installaticns: installaticn is the default fcrmat, and exhibiticn the ccmmcn
medium, cf much art tcday. ln part this tendency is driven by the increased
impcrtance cf hue shcws: there are biennials nct cnly in Venice but in Sc
Paulc, lstanbul, |channesbur and Cwanju.) Fntire exhibiticns are cften iven
cver tc messy uxtapcsiticns cf prcects - phctcs and texts, imaes and cbects,
videcs and screen - and cccasicnally the effects are mcre chactic than
ccmmunicative. Ncnetheless, discursivity and scciability are central ccncerns cf
the new wcrk, bcth in its makin and in its viewin. 'Discussicn has beccme an
impcrtant mcment in the ccnstituticn cf a prcect', Huyhe ccmments, and
Tiravanija alins his art, as 'a place cf sccializaticn', with a villae market cr a
dance flccr. 'l make art', Ccrdcn says, 'sc that l can c tc the bar and talk abcut
it'. Apparently, if cne mcdel cf the cld avant-arde
_
as the Party la Lenin,
tcday the equivalent is a party la Lenncn.
ln this time cf mea-exhibiticns the artist cften dcubles as curatcr. 'l am the
head cf a team, a ccach, a prcducer, an cranizer, a representative, a cheerleader,
a hcst cf the party, a captain cf the bcat', Drczcc says, 'in shcrt, an activist, an
activatcr, an incubatcr'. The rise cf the artist -as-curatcr has been ccmplemented
by that cf the cuiatcr-as-artist, maestrcs cf lare shcws have beccme very
prcminent cver the last decade. Dften lhe twc rcups share mcdels cf wcikin
as well as terms cf descripticn. Several years ac, fcr example, Tiravania, Drczcc
and cther arlists bean tc speak cf prcects as 'platfcrms' and 'staticns', as
'places that ather and then disperse', in crder tc undersccre the casual
ccmmunities they scuht tc create. Last year Dccumenta ll. cuated by an
I2//CRITICALAND CURATORIAL PO5ITION5
internationaI team Ied by Dkwui Fnwezor, was aIso conceived in terms of
'pIatforms' of discussion, scattered around the worId, on such topics as
'Democracy UnreaIized', 'Processes of Truth and ReconciIiation', 'CreoIit and
CreoIization' and 'Four African Cities', the exhibition heId in KasseI, Cermany,
was onIy the finaI such 'pIatform'. And this year the Venice BiennaIe, curated by
another internationaI roup headed by Francesco Bonami, featured sections
caIIed 'Utopia Station' and 'Zone of Urency', both of which exempIified the
informaI discursivity of much art-makin and curatin today. IJke 'kiosk',
'pIatform' and 'station' caII up the Modernist ambition to modernise cuIture in
accordance with industriaI society (FI Lissitzky spoke of his Constructivist
desins as 'way-stations between art and architecture'). Yet today these terms
evoke the eIectronic network, and many artists and curators faII for the lnternet
rhetoric of 'interactivity', thouh the means appIied to this end are usuaIIy far
more funky and face-to-face than any chat room on the Web.
The forms of these books by Bourriaud jkclo!ionol Acs!nc!ics. Pos!proJuc!ion|
and Dbrist, the chief curator at the Muse d'art moderne de Ia ViIIe de Paris, are
as teIIin as the contents. The Bourriaud texts are sI:etchy - brief Iosses of
proects that use 'postproduction' techniques and seek 'reIationaI' effects, whiIe
the Dbrist tome is diffuse, with nearIy a thousand paes of conversation with
fiures such as |ean Rouch and |.C. BaIIard as weII as the artists in question - and
this is onIy voIume l. (BaIIard Iets fIy with a sharp aperu, 'The psychoIoicaI test
is the onIy function of today's art shows', he says, with the Youn British Artists
in mind, 'and the aesthetic eIements have been reduced aImost to zero` He
means it as a compIiment.) The conceptuaI artist DouIas HuebIer once
proposed to photoraph everyone in the worId, the peripatetic Dbrist seems to
want to taIk to everyone (many of his interviews take pIace on pIanes). As with
some of the art discussed in the book, the resuIt osciIIates between an
exempIat work of interdiscipIinarity and a BabeIesque confusion of tonues.
AIon with the empha>is on discursivity and sociabiIity, there is a concern with
the ethicaI and the everyday: art is 'a way to expIore other possibiIities of
exchane' (Huyhe), a modeI of 'Iivin weII' (Tiravania), a means of bein
'toether in the everyday' (Drozco). 'Henceforth', Bourriaud decIares, 'the roup
is pitted aainst the mass, neihbourIiness aainst propaanda, Iow tech aainst
hih tech, and the tactiIe aainst the visuaI. And above aII, the everyday now
turns out to be a much more fertiIe terrain than pop cuIture.
These possibiIities of 'reIationaI aesthetics' seem cIear enouh, but there are
probIems, too. Sometimes poIitics are ascribed to such art on the basis of a shaky
anaIoy between an open work and an incIusive society, as if a desuItoi form
miht evoke a democratic community, or a non-hierarchicaI instaIIation predict
an eaIitarian worId. Hirschhorn sees his proects as 'never-endin construction
FoS\er/ /ChO\ RoomSJ Jl
sites', while Tiravanija reects 'the need tc fix a mcment where everythin is
ccmplete'. But surely cne thin art can still dc is tc take a stand, and tc dc this
in a ccncrete reister that brins tcether the aesthetic, the ccnitive and the
critical. And fcrmlessness in scciety miht be a ccnditicn tc ccntest rather than
tc celebrate in ait - a ccnditicn tc make cver intc fcrm fcr the purpcses cf
reflecticn and resistance as scme mcdernist painters attempted tc dc). The
artists in questicn frequently cite the Situaticnists but they, as T.|. Clark has
stressed, valued precise interventicn and ricrcus cranizaticn abcve all thins.
'The questicn', Huyhe arues, 'is less what?" than "tc whcm?" lt beccmes
a questicn cf address'. Bcurriaud alsc sees art as 'an ensemble cf units tc be
reactivated by the behclder-manipulatcr'. ln many ways this apprcach is ancther
leacy cf the Duchampian prcvccaticn, but when is such 'reactivaticn' tcc reat
a burden tc place cn the viewer, tcc ambiucus a test? As with previcus
attempts tc invclve the audience directly (in scme abstract paintin cr scme
ccnceptual art), there is a risk cf illeibility here, which miht reintrcduce the
artist as the principal fiure and the primary exeete cf the wcrk. At times, 'the
death cf the authcr' has meant nct 'the birth cf the reader', as Rcland Barthes
speculated, sc much as the befuddlement cf the viewer.
Furthermcre, when has art, at least since the Renaissance, nct invclved
discursivity and scciability? lt is a matter cf deree, cf ccurse, but miht this
emphasis be redundant? lt alsc seems tc risk a weird fcrmalism cf discursivity
and scciability pursued fcr their cwn sakes. Ccllabcraticn, tcc, is cften rearded
as a ccd in itself: 'Ccllabcraticn is the answer', Dbrist remarks at cne pcint, 'but
what is the questicn?' Art ccllectives in the recent past, such as thcse fcrmed
arcund AlDS activism, were pclitical prcects, tcday simply ettin tcether
scmetimes seems tc be encuh. Here we miht nct be tcc far frcm an artwcrld
versicn cf 'Ilash mcbs' - cf 'pecple meetin pecple', in Tiravanqa's wcrds, as an
end in itselI This is where l side with Sartre cn a bad day: cften in alleries and
museums, hell is cther pecple.
Perhaps discursiviI and scciability are in the fcrercund cf art tcday because
they are scarce elsewhere. The same ces fcr the ethical and the everyday, as the
briefest lance at cur craven pcliticians and hectic lives miht suest. lt is as
thcuh the very idea cf ccmmunip has taken cn a utcpian tine. Fven an art
audience cannct be taken fcr ranted but must be ccnured up every time, which
miht be why ccntempcrary exhbiticns cften feel like remedial wcrk in
sccializaticn: ccme and play, talk, learn with me. lf participaticn appears
threatened in cther spheres, its privilein in art miht be ccmpensatcry - a pale,
part-time substitute. Bcurriaud almcst suests as much. 'Thrcuh little set\ices
rendered, the artists ull in the cracks in the sccial bcnd. And cnly when he is at
his mcst rim dces he hit hcme: 'The scciety cf spectacle is thus fcllcwed by the
l94/ /CRTCAL AND CURATORAL PO5TON5
society of extras, where everyone finds the illusion of an interactive democracy
in more or less truncated channels of communication.
For the most part these artists and curators see discursivity and sociability in
rosy terms. As the critic Claire Bishop suests, this tends to drop contradiction
out of dialoue, and conIlict out of democracy, it is also !o advance a version of
the subect free of the unconscious even the ift is chared with ambivalence,
accordin to Mauss). At times everythin seems to be happy interactivity.
amon 'aesthetic obects' Bourriaud counts 'meetins, encounters, events,
various types of collaboration between people, ames, festivals and places of
conviviality, in a word all manner of encounter and relational invention'. To
some readers such 'relational aesthetics' will sound like a truly final end of art,
to be celebrated or decried. For others it will seem to aestheticize the nicer
procedures of our service economy ('invitations, castin sessions, meetins,
convivial and user-friendly areas, appointments'). There is the further suspicion
that, for all its discursivity, 'relational aesthetics' miht be sucked up in the
eneral movement for a 'post-critical' culture - an art and architecture, cinema
and literature 'after theory'.
Hal FosIcr, 'ChaI kooms' (?004), publ|shcd as 'ArIy FarIy', London kcvicw o) 8ook (London, 4
Dcccmbcr ?004) ?1-?.
FoS\etJ /ChO\ RoomSJ Jl