Beyond the Wall Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions

1. UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIA FACOLTÀ DI ECONOMIA, GIURISPRUDENZA, INGEGNERIA, LETTERE E FILOSOFIA, SCIENZE POLITICHE CORSO DI LAUREA SPECIALISTICA INTERFACOLTÀ IN EDITORIA E COMUNICAZIONE MULTIMEDIALE Beyond the WallParticipation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions Relatore: Prof. ssa Marilisa Di Giovanni Correlatore: Prof. Natale Salvatore Bonfiglio Tesi di laurea specialistica di: Sonia Aggio

2. Text • Section I – Participation through Contemporary Art • Section II – Typologies, Theories and Philosophies • Section III – Creating participation: Projects & Exhibitions Scope CouldParticipation become a new way of curating an exhibition? This research wants to define whether of not this is possible and with which basis. Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions

3. Participation through Contemporary Art • Precursors New revolutionary movements posed the basis for a new art condition FUTURISM New collocation and condition on art for the future new liaison with mass culture Fusion of artistic practices with advanced forms of technology ‘Arte Totale’ Stress on synesthesia and kynesthesia Café Cabaret DADA Cabaret Voltaire  simultaneous poems - deliberate confusion designed to provoke disintegration of the gap between performers/audience SURREALISM Viewer must complete the work Theatre of Cuelty  astound the audience, leave them with a new counsciousness Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions

4. SCHWITTERS The MerzBau First artwork to fully envelop the viewer and to bring it in a new enchanted world “Cathedral of erotic misery” “contemplative immersion of self in art” Schwitters DUCHAMP Fountain The viewer is challenged to enter into a dialogue with the work ‘Reflective art’ Readymade - serial process Etant Donnés The onlooker ‘completes’ the artwork Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 4

5. Yearsin which Participation starts to be a conscious matter, and progressively becomes, in the 1970s and 1980s, a core issue for the art world NEO DADA Strong sense of social, participatory politics JOHN CAGE 4’33’’ A matter of chance Noises in the environment and produced by the audience OP ART Physical engagement of the viewer Environments intended to provide viewer with a total experience The Heyday Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 5

6. HAPPENINGS The spectator was bombarded with sensations, which he had to order on his own responsibility The viewer can walk and move in the artwork and participate in it ALLAN KAPROW 18 Happenings in 6 Parts The artist invited the viewer to collaborate Involved directly the audience moving together to experience the element of the Happennig FLUXUS Aim to bring art and life together Incorporated participation and life into the works YOKO ONO Cut Piece Ability to move viewers to surprising actions, and disturb their sense of self and others Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 6

7. ENVIRONMENTS The artwork is enclosing the viewer in its new experience of the space PISTOLETTO Quadri Specchianti Inclusion of the viewer and his surroundings in the artwork PERFORMANCE and BODY ART Any type of physical stage performance, which is not an exhibition of direct artistry Incorporates satirical or conceptual elements ABRAMOVIĆ Imponderabilia Forced the audience to an experience of touch, unfamiliar bodily sensation between shame and awareness of their bodies Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 7

8. Full embracing of the New Media and their new possibilities, increasing involvement with social matters, progressive opening towards public spaces MUNTADAS The File Room JOCHEN GERZ The Gift GONZALES TORRES Utitled (Loverboys) The Last Twenty Years Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 8

9. Typologies, Theories and Philosophies • The GesamtkunstWerk Simultaneous poetry Visual poetry Total work of art Synesthesia The Open Work Openess= possibility of multiple interpretations of a text It goes to the extreme with avant-garde movements? When becomes noise? ‘Deviation from the code’ The Role of the Author ‘Author-function’  the author does not disappear, continues to write, but his individuality has been overwhelmed by the desire of ‘partage’ The Emancipated Spectator Emancipation = blurring the boundaries between looking and doing understand the specifity of knowledge and activity in the spectator Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions

10. SHOCKING and PROVOKING • Participation typologies “The artist as activist, shaman and provocateur” Creation of a meaningful event, which involves the full collaboration of the spectator CONNECTING and NETWORKING Creation of a connection between the participants Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions

11. MEETINGS and CONVIVIALITY Encounters and meetings of all kinds, to create a connenction between the artist and the viewers CONTRACT and COLLABORATION Relationship between perception and cognition that lead to collaborative and co-creative practices Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 11

12. PERCEPTION and PHYSICAL ENGAGEMENT Exploitation of ephemeral situations and inter-sensory correspondences with the idea of Environment Physical or emotional engagement of the spectator TECHNOLOGY and PARTICIPATION 2.0 Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 12

13. Move: Coreographing you Artists and Exhibitions physical engagement but inner to artworks! Happenings Happens active participation but isolated event during a special week-end Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions

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16. World Beach Project active participation that exploits modern virtual technologies to create a shared space in which everyone could take part, confronting himself with others it creates a network of ideas Virtual Society Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 16

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18. Enchanted Palace Dream and Performance exploitation of ephemeral situations and inter-sensory correspondances with emphasis on perception rather than analytical reflection The spectator becomes the subject re-reading the process according to its personal experiences Participation as curatorial practice Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 18

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24. Conclusions • Participation is always more and more present in the exhibitions and is asked from the audience It is usually in separate event or inner to the artworks Enchanted Palace one of the first exaples of a ‘partecipative curation’ It is essential to create a new environment in which the spectator could move and act Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions

25. Grazie