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Biographical Notes
Roland Barthes (1915-80), the French literary theorist, critic and innovative exponent of
structuralism and semiology, influenced visual theory 9nd practice through his Elements de
semi% gie (1964; Elements of Semiology, 1967); his analyses of signifying systems in popular
culture, collected in Mythologies (1957; trans. 1972) and La Tour Eiffel (1964; The El fel Tower,
1979); and his writings on the visual image in Image-Music-Text (1977), La chambre claire (1980;
Camera Lucida, 1981) and The Responsibility of Fonns (1985).
Joseph Beuys (1921-86) was a German artist, initially a sculptor, who after cOllaborating in the
Fluxus movement (1962-63) developed his system of synthesizing artistic practice with
political ideals and lived experience. In the early 1970s he founded organizations such as the
Free International Schoo! of Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research. The largest holdings of his
work are at the Joseph Beuys Archiv (http://www.moyland,dejpagesfjosephbeuysarchiv/), the
Hessisches Landesmusum in Darmstadt, the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University,
and the Kunstmuseum Bonn.
Nicolas Bourriaud is a French art theorist and curator who introduced the term 'relational
aesthetics' in texts such as his catalogue introduction to the Trame group exhibition at
capcMusee d'art contemporain, Bordeaux (1995). From 1999 to 2005 he was co-director, with
Jerome Sans, of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Projects he has curated include Aperto, the Venice
Biennale (1993) and the Moscow Biennale (co�curator, 2005). His essays are collected in
EstMtique reiationelle (1998; Relational Aesthetics, 2002) and Postproduction (2002).
Peter Burger is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Bremen. His
detailed analysis of the institutions of art has provided a theoretical framework for studying the
social context of art's production and reception. His works inclUde Theorie der Avantgarde (1974;
Theory of the Avant-Garde, 1984) and The Decline of Modernism (1992).
Graciela Carnevale is an Argentinian artist who was instrumental in forming the Grupo de Artistas
de Vanguarda in the late 1960s, a coalition of artists, joined by sociologists, filmmakers,
theorists, photographers and others who staged participatory politicized actions. Based in
Rosario, Argentina, their projects included Tucuman Arde (Tucuman Burns) in 1968, a
collaboration with sugar plant workers protesting against government oppression.
Lygia Clark (1920-88) was a Brazilian artist who worked in Rio de Janeiro and Paris. Out of a neo�
concretist sculptural practice her work evolved in the late 1960s to encompass participatory
works involving 'sensorial' experiences of objects and encounters, informed by her concurrent
practice as a psychoanalyst. Her ideas were also closely affiliated with those of the artist Helio
Oiticica (see below) and the Brazilian TropicaJia movement, in which they had a central role.
Retrospectives include Fundaci6 Antoni Tapies, Barcelona (1997).
Collective Actions (Kollektivnye deistviya) was founded in Moscow in 1976 by Andrei Monastyrsky,
Nikolai Panitkov, Georgi! Kizevalter and Nikita Alekseev. Elena Elagina, Igor Makarevich and
Sergei Romashko joined the group later, and its composition frequently changed. They are best
known for their collaborative, conceptually based actions in !"Ural spaces outside the city. Their
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