ARTIFICIAL HELLS

artificial hells
formed part of a generational value- system that rejected prescriptive
meanings tout court; for Troncy, Bourriaud and their collaborators, openendedness
stood against the closed meanings of critical art in the ’60s
and ’70s. 46
A glance at Eric Troncy’s ‘No Man’s Time’ (1991) evidences this reconfiguration
of interest in the exhibition as an open- ended project with an
emphasis on collaboration and showing work in process. The twenty- two
artists invited to ‘No Man’s Time’ at the Villa Arson in Nice spent a month
in residence to participate in a brainstorming session prior to the exhibition,
which showed projects created or performed specifically for the
venue. The catalogue contains the curator’s diary of these weeks (the ‘black
box’) emphasising the conviviality of this method: beer, barbecues, the
coming and going of different artists, and transcripts of their conversations.
One of the key ideas to emerge was that of the exhibition as a film,
with various works taking the form of actors – some with starring roles,
others as extras. Several pieces actually comprised performances, including
Pierre Joseph’s ‘walk- ons’ – a leper and a medieval warrior roaming the
exhibition space – and Philippe Parreno’s No More Reality (a demonstration
by children, in which they held banners bearing this slogan). 47 The
cinematic reference was pursued in Parreno’s billboard, installed outside
the exhibition venue, emblazoned with the slogan ‘Welcome to Twin
Peaks’, in reference to David Lynch’s popular TV series. Inside, a labyrinth
with variously sized doors was positioned at the entrance to the space, with
a view to mildly disorienting the spectator. Theory was less important than
popular culture – as manifested in the ‘playlist’ section at the back of the
Philippe Parreno, No More Reality, 1991
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