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 />
‘happsoc’: ‘happy society’ or ‘happy socialism’ implies a position <strong>of</strong> ironic<br />
distance towards <strong>the</strong>se compulsory celebrations; ‘sociological happening’<br />
produces a more ethnographic reading in which state spectacle is recoded<br />
as a form <strong>of</strong> avant- garde event. 40 The artists did not lean towards ei<strong>the</strong>r <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong>se, but ra<strong>the</strong>r chose to emphasise <strong>the</strong>ir lack <strong>of</strong> intervention, which <strong>the</strong>y<br />
viewed as <strong>the</strong> primary difference between Happsoc <strong>and</strong> Happenings: <strong>the</strong><br />
former was ‘non- stylised reality, free from all direct intervention . . . it’s a<br />
process in which we use what objectively exists to induce subjective points <strong>of</strong><br />
view, which make it appear with a superior reality’. 41 The approach <strong>of</strong><br />
Happsoc (in keeping with much <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Nouveau Réaliste attitude) was also<br />
a question <strong>of</strong> claiming temporary possession as a means to exp<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> horizon<br />
<strong>of</strong> what could be considered artistic work, on <strong>the</strong> one h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong><br />
authorship, on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r. Signifi cantly, <strong>the</strong> only documentation <strong>of</strong> Happsoc<br />
I is <strong>the</strong> printed manifesto <strong>and</strong> two images <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>of</strong>fi cial parades, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>y<br />
have a bureaucratic air that refl ects <strong>the</strong> totalitarian aspirations <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> work<br />
itself: it was impossible for <strong>the</strong> residents <strong>of</strong> Bratislava not to be part <strong>of</strong><br />
Happsoc I, <strong>and</strong> presumably, any photograph taken between 2– 9 May 1965<br />
could conceivably form part <strong>of</strong> its documentation. It is tempting to see <strong>the</strong><br />
structure <strong>of</strong> Happsoc I as ra<strong>the</strong>r Cagean – <strong>the</strong> artists defi ned <strong>the</strong> duration <strong>of</strong><br />
an event but not <strong>the</strong> action within it or <strong>the</strong> ways in which it was interpreted<br />
– but <strong>the</strong>re is no direct evidence for this infl uence, even if Cage had visited<br />
Prague in 1965. The point <strong>of</strong> reference is neo- Dada, with a view to producing<br />
art not destined for <strong>the</strong> gallery space but to be integrated back into daily<br />
life. Ironically, this task was easier in <strong>the</strong> East than in <strong>the</strong> West due to a<br />
complete absence <strong>of</strong> commercial galleries <strong>and</strong> institutional support for<br />
avant- garde practice.<br />
Presenting Bratislava as an objet trouvé, Happsoc I invited a select group<br />
<strong>of</strong> 400 participants (those who had received <strong>the</strong> announcement) to experience<br />
<strong>the</strong> city ‘doubly’ – as reality, <strong>and</strong> as work <strong>of</strong> art – with a view to<br />
questioning <strong>the</strong>ir paradigms <strong>of</strong> seeing, experiencing <strong>and</strong> perceiving reality.<br />
42 The emphasis was <strong>the</strong>refore on mental ra<strong>the</strong>r than physical<br />
participation: ‘to see Bratislava as a ready- made’. 43 The drawback <strong>of</strong> this<br />
radically de- authored re- perception is <strong>the</strong> loss <strong>of</strong> art’s signifying character<br />
that inevitably accompanies <strong>the</strong> complete dispersal <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> work <strong>of</strong> art into<br />
everyday life (a drawback that also plagues many <strong>of</strong> Kaprow’s later works).<br />
The Happsoc manifesto called upon people to participate in events <strong>and</strong> see<br />
reality through <strong>the</strong> lens <strong>of</strong> art, which certainly dispersed authorship into<br />
collective imagination, but it also eliminated any kind <strong>of</strong> concentrated<br />
artistic experience; in <strong>the</strong> artists’ own ra<strong>the</strong>r oblique words: ‘It is a syn<strong>the</strong>tic<br />
manifestation <strong>of</strong> social existence as such <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>refore, by necessity, a<br />
shared property <strong>of</strong> all.’ 44 The next Happsoc experiment was more ambitious:<br />
Happsoc II: The Seven Days <strong>of</strong> Creation took place later that year, also<br />
between two signifi cant holidays (Christmas <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> New Year); it<br />
comprised an invitation in <strong>the</strong> form <strong>of</strong> a semi- scored series <strong>of</strong> instructions<br />
142