Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
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notes to pages 148– 150<br />
57 ‘The main <strong>the</strong>mes <strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong>fi cial competitions <strong>and</strong> exhibitions were revolutionary<br />
traditions, <strong>the</strong> October Revolution, <strong>the</strong> History <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Communist<br />
Party <strong>of</strong> Czechoslovakia, <strong>the</strong> Slovak National Uprising <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Liberation<br />
<strong>of</strong> Czechoslovakia by <strong>the</strong> Soviet Army.’ (English summary <strong>of</strong> Slovak<br />
Visual <strong>Art</strong> 1970– 1985, Bratislava: SNG, 2002, p. 236.)<br />
58 Jaroslav Anděl, ‘The Present Czechoslovakian Situation’, in Works <strong>and</strong><br />
Words, p. 69. Anděl also draws attention to <strong>the</strong> different uses <strong>of</strong> photography<br />
in Prague <strong>and</strong> Bratislava: in Prague, artists using photography did<br />
not receive a traditional academic art education, <strong>and</strong> used photography as<br />
documentation, infl uenced by Happenings <strong>and</strong> Action <strong>Art</strong>. In Slovakia,<br />
<strong>the</strong>y had a more formal art training <strong>and</strong> used photography as graphics,<br />
more infl uenced by Nouveau Réalisme <strong>and</strong> Pop (p. 70).<br />
59 See for example Suspension, 1974 (<strong>the</strong> artist hanging in an attic room, his<br />
ears plugged with beeswax <strong>and</strong> his eyes covered with opaque black masking<br />
tape); Climbing Mount Kotel, 1974 (climbing a mountain in bad<br />
wea<strong>the</strong>r); There <strong>and</strong> Back, Prague, 24 May 1976 (sending a letter to<br />
strangers requesting that <strong>the</strong>y assault <strong>the</strong> person described in <strong>the</strong> letter,<br />
which was himself). In a recent interview, Mlčoch recalls that Chris<br />
Burden came to Czechoslovakia in <strong>the</strong> early 1970s, along with Terry<br />
Fox, Marina Abramovic <strong>and</strong> Ulay, <strong>and</strong> Tom Marioni, who were infl uential.<br />
See ‘The Shift From <strong>the</strong> Personal to <strong>the</strong> Social: A Conversation<br />
Between <strong>the</strong> Ládví Group <strong>and</strong> Jan Mlčoch’, Notebook for art, <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>and</strong><br />
related zones, 1– 2, Prague: Academy <strong>of</strong> Fine <strong>Art</strong>s, 2007, p. 102.<br />
60 Mlčoch’s View <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Valley (1976) is no less quietly galling: fi fteen people<br />
were invited to come to a meeting on <strong>the</strong> outskirts <strong>of</strong> Prague, <strong>the</strong> location<br />
marked by a black metal rod. Prior to <strong>the</strong> meeting, <strong>the</strong> artist was wrapped<br />
in white material <strong>and</strong> buried by <strong>the</strong> black rod; after 45 minutes he was dug<br />
out, by which point some <strong>of</strong> those invited had left.<br />
61 Mlčoch text, reprinted in Ludvík Hlaváček, ‘Vzpomínka na akčni umění<br />
70.let, rozhovor s Janem Mlčochem’, Výtvarné Umění: The Magazine for<br />
Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> (Prague), 3, 1991, p. 74.<br />
62 Mlčoch text, reprinted in ibid., p.76.<br />
63 Kov<strong>and</strong>a, interview with Hans- Ulrich Obrist, in Vit Havránek (ed.), Jiří<br />
Kov<strong>and</strong>a: Actions <strong>and</strong> Installations 1976– 2005, Prague: tranzit <strong>and</strong> JRP<br />
Ringier, 2006, p. 108. It should be stressed that <strong>the</strong> invisibility <strong>of</strong> Kov<strong>and</strong>a’s<br />
actions have very little in common with that <strong>of</strong> Augusto Boal’s,<br />
discussed in Chapter 4, beyond a desire to escape detection by police<br />
informers. Kov<strong>and</strong>a’s documentations are not scores to be repeated, but<br />
documents <strong>of</strong> a single encounter.<br />
64 See Pospiszyl, ‘Look Who’s Watching’, in Bishop <strong>and</strong> Dziewańska<br />
(eds.), 1968– 1989: Political Upheaval <strong>and</strong> <strong>Art</strong>istic Change.<br />
65 See Ilya Kabakov, ‘On <strong>the</strong> Subject <strong>of</strong> “The Void” ’, in Kabakov, Das<br />
Leben der Fliegen, Kölnischer Kunstverein/ Edition Cantz, 1992, pp. 234– 5.<br />
‘This structure is basically not a social one . . . Except for acquaintances<br />
328