Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
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notes to pages 172– 3<br />
(Walker, John Latham: The Incidental Person, p. 100.) In a letter to<br />
Walker, Steveni argued that most artists had been happy to go along with<br />
being called an Incidental Person instead <strong>of</strong> an artist, noting that ‘in<br />
particular, Beuys at Documenta 6 when APG gave an exposé <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> work,<br />
proclaimed “Incidental Person Yes, <strong>Art</strong>ist No” ’. (Letter, 18 July 1994,<br />
from Barbara Steveni to John Walker; 9913/ 1/ 4, p. 9, in John Walker<br />
papers, Tate Archive.)<br />
40 Breakwell: ‘<strong>the</strong>y thought it would be interesting for me to look at <strong>the</strong><br />
abnormal society, <strong>the</strong> closed world <strong>of</strong> Broadmoor, as a diarist. So <strong>the</strong>re’s<br />
an obvious connection <strong>the</strong>re. Whereas I don’t know what I would possibly<br />
have found <strong>of</strong> interest in British Steel, for instance. This was about<br />
illness, mental states, people, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>y are central to my works. I’m not<br />
interested so much in materials.’ (Breakwell, interviewed by Victoria<br />
Worsley, December 2004/ January 2005, National Sound Archive, British<br />
Library, Tape 16910, side A.)<br />
41 Ian Breakwell, ‘From <strong>the</strong> Inside: A Personal History <strong>of</strong> Work on Placement<br />
with <strong>the</strong> Department <strong>of</strong> Health <strong>and</strong> Related Work 1976– 1980’, <strong>Art</strong><br />
Monthly, 40, October 1980, p. 4. Because <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> restriction <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Offi cial<br />
Secrets Act, Breakwell tended to present this project only in APG events<br />
<strong>and</strong> symposia, ra<strong>the</strong>r than in exhibitions. These discussions include <strong>the</strong><br />
Stadtische Kunstmuseum Bonn (‘Kunst alz Soziale Strategie’, 1977), <strong>the</strong><br />
Royal College <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> (‘Incidental Person Approach to Government’, 27<br />
October 1977), <strong>and</strong> Documenta 6 (1977).<br />
42 Mick Kemp, architect, cited in ‘Ian Breakwell Feasibility Study phase 1<br />
<strong>and</strong> 2’, 1976, Tate Archive.<br />
43 Ian Breakwell, ‘APG Report’, cited in Dodd, <strong>Art</strong>ists Placement Group<br />
1966– 1976, p. 69.<br />
44 Dodd, <strong>Art</strong>ists Placement Group 1966– 1976, p. 47.<br />
45 The Reminiscence Aids Project was a ‘nostalgia jukebox’ for <strong>the</strong> elderly<br />
<strong>and</strong> senile, devised by Mick Kemp, in collaboration with two o<strong>the</strong>r APG<br />
artists, David Toop <strong>and</strong> Hugh Davies (both artists <strong>and</strong> musicians). See<br />
Breakwell, ‘From <strong>the</strong> Inside’, pp. 2– 6, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Department <strong>of</strong> Health <strong>and</strong><br />
Society Security’s ‘Report <strong>of</strong> Research Findings <strong>and</strong> Recommendations<br />
for Future Development <strong>of</strong> Reminiscence Aids’, 1980.<br />
46 Initially <strong>the</strong> Russian constructivist architect Bertolt Lubetkin had<br />
provided plans for <strong>the</strong> town, but he resigned in 1950; a few years later <strong>the</strong><br />
abstract painter Victor Pasmore was brought onto <strong>the</strong> project as a consultant;<br />
between 1963 <strong>and</strong> 1970 Pasmore produced an elegant modernist<br />
pavilion that had, by <strong>the</strong> later 1970s, been ab<strong>and</strong>oned by <strong>the</strong> council <strong>and</strong><br />
was something <strong>of</strong> a tip.<br />
47 Brisley recalls that his fa<strong>the</strong>r had been a strong union worker for <strong>the</strong> railways,<br />
<strong>and</strong> was involved in <strong>the</strong> National Strike <strong>of</strong> 1926; he had instilled in<br />
Brisley ‘<strong>the</strong> notion <strong>of</strong> miners as <strong>the</strong> avant- garde <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> working class’.<br />
(Brisley, interview with <strong>the</strong> author, London, 7 August 2009.)<br />
336