Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
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notes to pages 100– 3<br />
89 Lebel, interview with <strong>the</strong> author, Paris, 22 July 2010. Debord <strong>and</strong> Lebel<br />
had met as early as 1952 (both having relatives who lived in Cannes) <strong>and</strong><br />
Lebel was sympa<strong>the</strong>tic to all SI activities, even though Debord did not<br />
attend any <strong>of</strong> his events: ‘He relied – can you believe this – he relied on<br />
newspapers! How warped can your perception be? Actually I met him on<br />
Boulevard Saint Germain one day in <strong>the</strong> ’60s <strong>and</strong> I said, “What are you<br />
writing about? You never came to see one <strong>of</strong> my Happenings nor<br />
anybody else’s Happenings” <strong>and</strong> I realised that he <strong>and</strong> his friends were<br />
talking through newspapers. How can you do that? He laughed <strong>and</strong> said<br />
“Who cares”. He was being dogmatic. So it doesn’t matter. He was being<br />
dismissive, but I just took it as a joke.’<br />
90 ‘The Happening is <strong>the</strong> materialisation <strong>of</strong> a collective dream <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> vehicle<br />
<strong>of</strong> an intercommunication.’ (Lebel, Le Happening, p. 36.)<br />
91 Lebel, ‘On <strong>the</strong> Necessity <strong>of</strong> Violation’, p. 103.<br />
92 Lebel, in Lebel <strong>and</strong> Michaël (eds.), Happenings de Jean- Jacques Lebel, p.<br />
184, my translation. See also Kaprow: in 1958 he argued that ‘objects <strong>of</strong><br />
every sort are materials for <strong>the</strong> new art: paint, chairs, food, electric <strong>and</strong><br />
neon lights, smoke, water, old socks, a dog, movies, a thous<strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
things’. By 1966, he also regarded ‘people’ to be materials <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> work,<br />
with a consequent elimination <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> audience; <strong>the</strong> viewer’s role thus<br />
moved from a formal element in <strong>the</strong> work (providing colour <strong>and</strong> movement)<br />
to one <strong>of</strong> completing <strong>the</strong> work as a ‘co- creator’. (Kaprow, ‘The<br />
Legacy <strong>of</strong> Jackson Pollock’, p. 9.)<br />
93 Vaneigem, The Revolution <strong>of</strong> Everyday Life, p. 114.<br />
94 Unsigned, ‘L’avant- garde de la presence’, p. 17, my translation.<br />
95 Jean- Paul Sartre, in Le Nouvel Observateur, 18 January 1967, quoted in<br />
Jean- Jacques Lebel: Retour d’Exil, Peintures, dessins, collages 1954– 1988,<br />
Paris: Galerie 1900/ 2000, 1988, p. 76.<br />
96 ‘We were not <strong>the</strong> only ones – I am not saying May ’68 happened because<br />
<strong>of</strong> us – I am saying that we were a little movement <strong>of</strong> all those little tiny<br />
movements that concurred towards that aim.’ (Lebel, interview with <strong>the</strong><br />
author, Paris, 22 July 2010.)<br />
97 Jean- Jacques Lebel, ‘Notes on Political Street Theatre, Paris: 1968, 1969’,<br />
TDR, 13:4, Summer 1969, p. 112– 13.<br />
98 Constant, interview in Imus Nocte et consumimur Igni, p. 100.<br />
99 Guy Debord <strong>and</strong> Gianfranco Sanguinetti, ‘Theses on <strong>the</strong> SI <strong>and</strong> its<br />
Time’, The Real Split in <strong>the</strong> International, p. 11.<br />
100 Guy Debord, ‘Notes to Serve Towards <strong>the</strong> History <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> SI from 1969–<br />
1971’, in The Real Split in <strong>the</strong> International, pp. 93– 4.<br />
101 In an interview with <strong>the</strong> group in 1970, GRAV ascribe various reasons to<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir disb<strong>and</strong>ing: <strong>the</strong> tension between individual <strong>and</strong> collective efforts,<br />
economic inequalities between members, differences <strong>of</strong> responsibility,<br />
opinion, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> will to work as a team. See Caramel (ed.), Groupe de<br />
recherche d’art visuel 1960– 1968, pp. 130– 6. Stein also noted that ‘Once<br />
311