Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

Such things go beyond established high culture as it has been perpetrated by a taste-directed
art industry. Ofcourse I don’t believe that artists really wield any significant power. At best,
one can focus attention. But every little bit helps. In concert with other people’s activities
outside the art scene, maybe the social climate ofsociety can be changed. Anyway, when you
work with the “real stuff” you have to think about potential consequences. A lot ofthings
would never enter the decision-making process ifone worked with symbolic representations
that have to be weighed carefully. If you work with real-time systems, well, you probably go
beyond Duchamp’s position. Real-time systems are double agents. They might run under the
heading “art,” but this culturization does not prevent them from operating as normal. The
MOMA Poll had even more energy in the museum than it would have had in the street—real
sociopolitical energy, not awe-inspiring symbolism.
J.S.: Can you describe a social work that is not political?
H.H.: Probably all things dealing with social situations are to a greater or lesser degree
political. Take The Gallery-Goer’s Residence Profile. I asked the people that came to my exhibition
to mark with a blue pin on large maps where they were living. After the show I traveled
to all those spots on the Manhattan map that were marked by a blue pin and took a photograph
ofthe building or approximately that location. I came up with about 730 photographs for
Manhattan (naturally not every visitor participated in the game). The photographs were enlarged
to 5� by 7�. They will be displayed on the wall ofthe Guggenheim according to a
geographical score. All those spots that were east of Fifth Avenue go upward on the wall from
a horizontal center line, those west go downward. The respective distance from Fifth Avenue
determines the sequence ofpictures East and West. The Fifth Avenue spine takes up approximately
36 yards ofwall space. Sometimes the photographs reach up to the ceiling, on other
occasions (e.g., there is only one on the west side and none on the east side) it becomes a
very jagged distribution. The “composition” is a composition determined by the information
provided by the gallery-goers. No visual considerations play a role.
All this sounds very innocent and apolitical. The information I collected, however, is
sociologically quite revealing. The public ofcommercial art galleries, and probably that of
museums, lives in easily identifiable and restricted areas. The main concentrations are on the
upper West Side (Central Park and adjoining blocks, and West End Avenue with adjoining
blocks), the Upper East Side, somewhat heavier in the Madison–Park Avenue areas, then below
23rd Street on the East and West sides with clusters on the Lower East Side and the loft district.
The photographs give an idea ofthe economic and social fabric ofthe immediate neighborhood
ofthe gallery-goers. Naturally the Lower East Side pins were not put there by Puerto
jeanne siegel an interviewwith hans haacke 245