Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
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artificial hells<br />
ephemerality <strong>of</strong> works <strong>of</strong> art (as per Lippard’s classic reading <strong>of</strong> US conceptualism,<br />
in which dematerialisation denotes an ‘escape’ from <strong>the</strong> market<br />
system), than to <strong>the</strong> diffusion <strong>and</strong> circulation <strong>of</strong> art in <strong>the</strong> mass media. At<br />
<strong>the</strong> same time, we should be mindful <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> different ways in which dematerialisation<br />
was manifested in Argentinian art: works that existed solely in<br />
<strong>the</strong> media (such as <strong>the</strong> Happening for a Dead Boar) are signifi cantly different<br />
to Bony’s The Worker’s Family, which attracted media attention but<br />
primarily takes <strong>the</strong> form <strong>of</strong> a live material presence (<strong>the</strong> human body) <strong>and</strong><br />
exists today as a large- scale, framed black <strong>and</strong> white photograph, prominently<br />
displayed in <strong>the</strong> collection <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Museo de <strong>Art</strong>e Latinoamericano de<br />
Buenos Aries (MALBA).<br />
Bony’s work, however radical in its use <strong>of</strong> people as a medium, could<br />
also be said to restrict itself to ra<strong>the</strong>r conservative means: exchanging <strong>the</strong><br />
fi xed contours <strong>of</strong> traditional fi gurative sculpture for <strong>the</strong> live human being.<br />
The work is similar to a number <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r delegated performances that<br />
attempted to stage this exchange in <strong>the</strong> late 1960s, such as Living Sculptures<br />
by <strong>the</strong> Swedish <strong>the</strong>atre director <strong>and</strong> writer Pi Lind, who in 1967 placed<br />
around twenty people on plinths in <strong>the</strong> Moderna Museet in Stockholm, for<br />
nine hours a day for fi ve days. The event was conceived as a series <strong>of</strong><br />
portraits, each <strong>of</strong> which was accompanied by a text panel indicating specifi c<br />
information about each person: <strong>the</strong>ir name, age, sex, pr<strong>of</strong>ession, education,<br />
economic background, family history, pets, religion, <strong>and</strong> so on. A wide<br />
variety <strong>of</strong> Swedish citizens were on display, including a teacher, a photographer,<br />
a housewife, a Vietnam activist, a fa<strong>the</strong>r- to- be, <strong>and</strong> a girl with a St<br />
Bernard dog. In an interview with <strong>the</strong> press, Pi Lind described <strong>the</strong> whole<br />
thing as a ‘sociological exhibition’ or a wild mix between a ‘beauty fair <strong>and</strong><br />
social realism’. 42 Images <strong>and</strong> press cuttings <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> exhibition indicate a relatively<br />
seamless continuity between <strong>the</strong> performers <strong>and</strong> audience, arguably<br />
refl ecting <strong>the</strong> social equilibrium <strong>of</strong> Sc<strong>and</strong>inavian social democracy. By<br />
contrast, <strong>the</strong> specifi city <strong>of</strong> Bony’s provocation lies in its emphatic pointing<br />
to a particular social demographic <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir payment: <strong>the</strong> working- class<br />
family were paid to work a full eight- hour day, in front <strong>of</strong> a gallery audience.<br />
Work – as activity <strong>and</strong> payment – is <strong>the</strong> subject <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> piece as much<br />
as <strong>the</strong> representation <strong>of</strong> an ‘ideal’ or exemplary family unit.<br />
The apparent ‘normality’ <strong>of</strong> Bony’s family could also be contrasted to<br />
<strong>the</strong> display <strong>of</strong> Paolo Rosa, a man with Down’s Syndrome, at <strong>the</strong> 1972<br />
Venice Biennale as part <strong>of</strong> a live installation by <strong>the</strong> Italian artist Gino De<br />
Dominicis. 43 Entitled The Second Solution <strong>of</strong> Immortality (The Universe is<br />
Motionless) (1972), <strong>the</strong> installation comprises a person affected by Down’s<br />
Syndrome seated on a chair, gazing at a beach ball <strong>and</strong> a rock placed on <strong>the</strong><br />
ground before him/ her. Each <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se components have <strong>the</strong>ir own<br />
extremely long titles: <strong>the</strong> beach ball is Rubber ball (fallen from a height <strong>of</strong><br />
two meters) at <strong>the</strong> instant immediately prior to its rebound, while <strong>the</strong> rock is<br />
titled Waiting for a general r<strong>and</strong>om molecular movement in a single direction to<br />
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