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 />
studies (many <strong>of</strong> which have sunk without art historical trace), Popper<br />
rightly points to <strong>the</strong> diffi culty <strong>of</strong> establishing a hard <strong>and</strong> fast distinction<br />
between physical activation <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> incitement to mental activity. The fi nal<br />
page <strong>of</strong> his book features a fl ow chart in which three genealogies <strong>of</strong> art<br />
(Post- Dada/ Pop/ Conceptualism, Political <strong>Art</strong>/ Socialist Realism, <strong>and</strong><br />
Post- Bauhaus/ Constructivist Kinetic <strong>Art</strong>) all come toge<strong>the</strong>r via spectator<br />
participation to form ‘Democratic <strong>Art</strong>’, defi ned as one in which ‘<strong>the</strong> power<br />
<strong>of</strong> aes<strong>the</strong>tic decision lies in <strong>the</strong> h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> all’; its consequences – ‘<strong>the</strong> disappearance<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> work <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> diminished responsibility <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> artist’ – are,<br />
he argues, only ‘superfi cially negative phenomena’ when seen in light <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> resulting social <strong>and</strong> artistic gains. 15<br />
These writers’ equation between democracy <strong>and</strong> participatory art, as a<br />
radical new tendency with social implications, needs in turn to be contextualised<br />
by French art in <strong>the</strong> 1950s, which was dominated by <strong>the</strong> abstraction<br />
<strong>of</strong> art informel on <strong>the</strong> one h<strong>and</strong> (Jean Dubuffet, Henri Michaux, Jean<br />
Fautrier) <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> fi gurative realism <strong>of</strong> art engagé on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r (socialist<br />
realist painters such as André Fougeron). Surrealism continued to be a<br />
lingering cultural presence into <strong>the</strong> 1960s, albeit in a decadent mode: <strong>the</strong><br />
commitment to Marx <strong>and</strong> Freud that had characterised Surrealist activities<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1920s had transformed into an embrace <strong>of</strong> mysticism <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> occult,<br />
as witnessed in <strong>the</strong> group’s elaborate Eros exhibition at Galerie Daniel<br />
Cordier in 1959. For a younger generation <strong>of</strong> artists, <strong>the</strong> unconscious was<br />
overrated as a revolutionary principle, while <strong>the</strong> group’s Oedipal organisation<br />
around Breton as paternal leader was explicitly to be rejected. 16 Dada<br />
ra<strong>the</strong>r than Surrealism became <strong>the</strong> primary point <strong>of</strong> reference, not only for<br />
<strong>the</strong> SI but for Lebel <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Nouveaux Réalistes, formed in 1960. 17 In 1959,<br />
<strong>the</strong> fi rst Paris Biennial, for artists under <strong>the</strong> age <strong>of</strong> thirty- fi ve, encouraged<br />
popular interest in visual art, bolstered by <strong>the</strong> convergence between art <strong>and</strong><br />
high fashion (such as Yves Saint Laurent’s ‘Mondrian’ dress, 1965) <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
popularisation <strong>of</strong> art <strong>and</strong> multiples (<strong>the</strong> department store Prisunic produced<br />
artist editions in 1967, leading Martial Raysse to declare that ‘Prisunic<br />
stores are <strong>the</strong> museums <strong>of</strong> modern art’). 18 In short, <strong>the</strong> artistic backdrop to<br />
participatory art in Paris <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1960s was an idea <strong>of</strong> democracy as <strong>the</strong> levelling<br />
equality <strong>of</strong> consumer capitalism. Everyday culture, accessible to all,<br />
was at <strong>the</strong> core <strong>of</strong> this underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>of</strong> democracy; while this stood in<br />
some degree <strong>of</strong> opposition to elitist cultural hierarchies, <strong>and</strong> to fi gurative<br />
modes <strong>of</strong> leftist art in <strong>the</strong> 1950s, it rarely delved into questions <strong>of</strong> class<br />
difference <strong>and</strong> social inequality.<br />
I. The SI: Surpassing <strong>Art</strong><br />
As has <strong>of</strong>ten been stated, <strong>the</strong> SI emerged from a number <strong>of</strong> post- war artistic<br />
<strong>and</strong> literary groups including Lettrisme (1946– 52), <strong>the</strong> Lettriste International<br />
(c.1952– 7), <strong>the</strong> International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus (1953– 7)<br />
80