Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

6 — What is,who constitutes the “general body”?—it was suggested that only those “working”
qualify for inclusion,which would seem to rest on a formal question of a definition of “work.”
DOCUMENT VIII, AUGUST 1976
In 1975, (Provisional) Art & Language received an invitation from Carlo Ripa di Meana, the
director of La Biennale di Venezia, to exhibit as part of the “Aperto” section. During spring
1976, we discussed the production of a large red cloth banner to bear the following inscription
in white: “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis Est. Welcome to Venice: the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie
‘eternalizes’ local color.” The plan was to display the banner on the exterior of one of the venues
of “Aperto.”
Olle Granath, a curator associated with the Biennale, expressed his horror at the possibility
of such an installation actually taking place. In a telegram dated 20 May and addressed to
the group in New York, he stated: “I only want to communicate to you that there is no possibility
to put your ‘banner’ outside the pavilion of the exhibition, it has to be put inside.” Flora
Lewis reported on the Biennale in The New York Times of 25 August 1976, from which the
present text is taken.
Venice Biennale’s Revival Offers Vitality
. . . Two competing,antagonistic American groups were also permitted to enter
contributions.
One,whose leader calls himself Joseph Kossuth [sic],brought a batch of huge posters headlined
“Where Do You Stand?” Pointing out the importance of knowing one’s “social location,” it
offers a series of multiple-choice pre-packaged reactions to the whole Biennale.
They run the gamut from rejection of it all,because by the very fact of being organized it
represents authority and is therefore anti-revolutionary,through varying degrees of artistic arrogance
and philistine confusion (“nothing makes any sense to me” is one choice) to rejection of it
all because art is a private matter and must not be tainted by social commentary or politics.
The other American group,called The Fox,protested bitterly against such a leaven of humor.
But Mr. di Meana managed to assuage them by allowing them to put up a huge red banner
outside the old shipyard at Giudecca,where the “international contemporary” exhibition has been
organized,and where graphics are to be shown next month. The banner proclaims,“Welcome to
Venice: the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie ‘eternalizes’ local color.”
michael corris inside a new york art gang 479