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even with the act of writing, and it is a
new form of expression delegated, by
those associations of actions and entities,
to continue pursuing the initial
goals and intentions. Sometimes, very
often, the translating entities distort the
meaning of those intentions and goals.
It is nevertheless impossible for the reader
to know if that happened with the
text, because he/she wasn't present
during the unfolding of those practices.
The associations between the various
entities are black-boxed - “a process
that makes the joint production of actors
and artifacts entirely opaque” (Latour
1999: 183)- as soon as practices cease,
therefore the reader cannot make any
posits in regard to that. With these
notions, Latour somehow overcomes
the criticism Turner brought to
Bourdieu's social theory because, to a
certain extent, he manages to give an
account of how the “embodiment” of
information takes place.
Then, the statement was sent to the
directors of the Biennial which read it,
accepted it, perhaps translated it into
the official language of the country in
which the event will be held (it is here
were distortions and detours of meaning
may be highly present, because it is in
the translation were the text suffers a
considerable change of expression and
meaning), with the help of a translator or
a volunteer, and sent forward to the
administrator of the website who uploaded
both of the versions on the official
web page. A series of agents that are
black-boxed, again, work in order for
someone to read this statement. The
text will also be bracketed when one
visits the exhibition. This is what Latour
[88]
calls a composition, i.e., an association
of human and non-human agents that
symmetrically exchange intentions and
goals and that is shaped like an intricate
network. The hybrid agent is the
result of a composition action that requires
translation, delegation and blackboxing.
He acts by associating itself with
entities that can be positioned in fields
like technology, art, philosophy, administration
etc. but putting them in such
categories would mean to perceive
them as black-boxed intermediaries, or
purified hybrids, instead of mediators
endowed with agency. This sends us
back to Schatzki's definition of practice
theory that stated: “activity is embodied
and that nexuses of practices are
mediated by artifacts, hybrids, and natural
objects”. Here Latour goes beyond
Bourdieu's “Enlightenment” and his
field's inability to interweave.
IV.
Now that the problems raised by
Bourdieu's habitus and field have been
sorted out by replacing it with Latour's
actor-network-theory, one can have a
fresh new look at the relation between
the black-boxed practice theory and the
composition of BB5's curatorial statement.
The title “Tactics for Here and
Now” immediately shows that the text is
trying to position artistic know-how within
the categories of time and space.
Thus, it is placing practices related with
art in a, what Schatzki calls, site ontology
that in its material form takes the
shape and content of Bucharest. The
statement speaks about “the context of
the shifting nature of politics, economics
and culture” and “the conditions of flux”
to designate this space and time, the
here and now. Furthermore, it notes that
in here “artists often have to negotiate
risky positions, contested territories or
situation in which cultural activities interact
or provide a counter point”.
The power of the artist, as mentioned in
the text, derives from “investigative,
indirect, or informal strategies”. His
ways reflect “a practice that is evolving,
dynamic and responsive, something
that is essential for situations that change
quickly or are not yet fully understood”.
Henceforth, in the statement one
can see that the order characteristics of
the artistic site are a product of strategies,
negotiations, and tactics (domains
of force) performed in an indirect, informal
manner (domain of struggle), with
the mediated aid of the Internet among
others. The artist avoids “overt statements”
that could recall the modernist
grand narratives. Instead, he is engaged
in the construction of a different
type of instrument for knowing the contemporary,
“the art of living in the city as
the work of art” (Lefebvre 1996: 173). In
the 1960's the social theorist Henri
Lefebvre (1996), argued more ore less
the same. He stated that “leaving aside
representation, ornamentation and
decoration, art can become praxis and
poiesis on a social scale” (Lefebvre
1996: 173, emphasis added). His theoretical
position is developed in a more
recent book authored by Nicolas
Whybrow (2011).
There is no doubt that the curatorial statement
finds its way in the loose definition
of the practice theory turn provided
by Schatzki. But it is more inclined
towards a Bourdieuian-like perspective,
rather than a Latourian one. For this
reason its conceptualization is opened
for the same criticisms brought to
Bourdieu earlier. Nevertheless, this
black-box is not closed yet until the
grand opening. It is now and then, here
and there, that various agents will direct
their actions in associations with this
text in order to translate, distort, derive
and relegate it.
V.
I have tried to make a short account of
the possible link between the practice
theory turn and contemporary artistic
practices by means of Latour's ideas
that for me stand as an alternative for
Bourdieu's central notions. This article
made use of Schatzki's loose description
of the practice turn in order to see
how this black-box is an entity associated
with the curatorial text developed by
Anne Barlow for BB5. According to my
interpretation, the text easily fits into the
practice framework but is encrusted with
the same difficulties encountered in the
ideas of habitus and field. This could be
redressed with the help of work done by
actor-network-theorists (Hennion 1993;
Latour 2011; Yaneva 2003) or with a
more fashioned perspective provided by
Nicolas Bourriaud (1998). For example,
“Art and the City”, the latest work of
Whybrow, tries to bring both Lefebvre's
production of space and Bourriad's
(1998) relational aesthetic into an analysis
of the links between body, art, and
city.
One may argue that the case is closed.
The text is how it is, its meaning fixed,
[89]