Touch and Be Touched

TBT 2009 - Comments about the Object: (User 1)

- Living with it interfered with the space.

- The sensation is smooth and pleasant.

- Pleasing and beautiful

- Exists an absence more than presence:

A non-space because of what surrounds it. Provokes visual interference, surrounds the space, (transitory in its essence). By accepting it is a rejection per se (something to be dealt with)

- The packaged of it, was relevant due to the limited period of time in the house (was near the Box as if the Box was going to leave in the following day).

- Temporality and supportive/engaging. (Find a balance in between)

- Integration of the box and them with the space is an unconscious process.

- Wanting to spend every time with the Box, supporting physically.

- Time has effect. Affects the box (A fast engagement)

- Establish a connection with it by sitting side by side.

- Is not a work of art but part of it! (They complete the work in some way)

- Allowing people to engage with it makes them think how to receive it and think about the level of expectation in art; (allow the function of the artwork to engage).

TBT 2009 - Comments about the Object: (User 2)

-The object was used as a table during its stay in the house.

- The textile function of the object was also very appealing.

- The object had for them the remembrance of an old suitcase but still a reference to a functional object. Made them think of something inspiring and at the same time romantic.

- One of them used as his own desk for a couple of hours. (They tried to emphasize the functionality and its use).

- Their intervention worked in some way as a written statement a document made for themselves and by themselves.

- The impact of the box in the room was notorious because it didn’t change the spatial organization but it transformed the way they perceived it. In same vague sense was a reunion, inspiring and even healthy.

- Due to all these qualities the box was reserved to create a special occasion and to enjoy the short period of time they had with the box.

- It also worked as a diary of their lives that in some way works as a testimony of what will certainty leave some affection behind.

- However the changes happened to in their lives even if it was for a night. The functionality of the box, worked also as a break in their routine provoking a relationship directly with something more than just a box.

- The experience itself turned out to be different and promoter of new things and happenings in their lives.

TBT 2009 - Comments about the Object: (user 3)

- The box was very appealing when it was unwrapped, but there was also a questioning between being a box or a cube in conceptual terms.

- There was an interest in naming it because it was there were several possibilities to go with the box.

- They faced the object as an object so they felted restrained in doing something to the box.

- They used it as a support base, to make it functional.

- in some way the box made part of the family for while, and was created a relation even thought the object itself remained strange to them. The presence of it was a bit frightening because of its size.

- There was a slight contradiction in their behaviour with the object because in one hand it was almost like a sense of loss but in the other hand there was a kind of affection. It is also interesting how the object even thought it didn’t suffered any intervention it became an active object that completed some kind of gap.

- There was also the interest of going for a walk with the box and trying to interact with it in specific places. However the idea didn’t happen!

- At the same time there was a need to not engage with it, because it is something that an ordinary object would not require from you!

- The box had a lot of dust in it.

- The box has also the power to precede you into the room as something that was dislocated.

- Nevertheless there was a creation of a relation due to the box being attractive to them. The physicality of it and its basic and tactile attributes it was not divorced from them because they felt it belonged to the everyday world. Another point that was considered was that it was something natural and very practical to accept.

- There was an objectification of the box diminishing it. The object itself becomes an accumulation of space that seems to belong to place but still does not belong. Remains alienated. There seems to exist a boundary that keeps us to still keep close but at the same time distant from it.

- In some way part of our lives were brought as close as possible because of a need of interacting

- it is also relevant to say with no apparent intention there was created an aura in the object because they felt they could project anything to the box as long as the box remained with no intervention. Afterwards it becomes difficult and there is also other aspect that once the box itself becomes intervened until the point whether it loses its integrity!

TBT 2009 - Comments about the Object: (user 4)

- They felt that the smell, touch and smoothness were very important factors to their engagement with the box because conditioned their interaction in order to reflect their interactions within the three characteristics.

- However they were concerned in leaving one side of the box clear because they felt people should have the same experience they had by touching and smelling it.

- The interventions in the box were a consequence of a gathering of people mainly friends around the box. As consequence of this they were tempted to think outside the box and analyze their experiences.

- There was a suggestion of making a suitcase, putting wheels, making a plinth, a skate board, walk it around the city, but they hadn’t the time to do that.

- The box had appositive effect on people making them work collaboratively and for a common interest.

- Some ideas were generated by the presence of the box in the place. In addition the box was placed in several places according to the needs and interest of the people that wanted to make use of it.

- The box itself incarnated the personality of a tourist that walks around without staying much time in one place but always trying to retain most of his experiences.

- The presence of the box was very prom eminent not only in the actual place but also in their memories as something that found a small corner in their conscious.

- Even though it was a short period of time with the box it was a good opportunity for them to be creative. One of the interventions was with candle works, a DJ stand, drawings and chiselling. All these interventions reflected individual instincts that pervaded instead of consideration. According to them this characteristic caused the awareness that the box was already part of them in some way but nevertheless it remained in some way a bizarre object but very appealing and receptive to everyone!

TBT 2009 - Comments about the Object: (user 5)

- First reaction was that it had a funny smell.

- The Box represented a distraction and an object that was very intriguing because its presence was very unusual.

- They used as a functional with several functions such as a seat and lather. They also wrote in the object with commentaries very intriguing about the purpose of the project.

- One of them asked what the point of the project was because there was a dialog very effusive about their beliefs.

- There was some investigation about how the box was made and why which resulted in several questions and debates.

- The debate was mainly about modern art and that led to several conversations about modern art.

- The box didn’t facilitate much communication between co-workers because they were already very close with each other. The box gave a new ambiance to the space because it enables them to be confronted by almost an alien that entered their lives for a period of time.

- In addition the fact that the environment of a working space was very restrictive they tried to make use of it in different ways.

TBT 2009 - Comments about the Object: (user 6)

- The surface is very appealing and beautiful, even inspiring, which let the ‘temporary owner’ quite perplex about the power of such feelings.

- The presence of the box was in some way quite unsettling. For instance the fact that the box didn’t open and still remains as a box.

- There was a feeling that the box even though was not destroyed it was in other hand vandalized by the multiple interventions.

- The intervention on the box was paintings that were similar to stamps. The paintings were small animals one of them was from Latin America, and in together with the paintings there was phrases written in Spanish and in English making reference to the paintings.

- The box presence was very stimulating because it had connotations with bad things such as ‘I am going to be boxed in’ or ‘they are going to take me away in a box’ associated with the image of death and coffins. In addition the temporary owner made reference to a poem that refers to being boxed in the Second World War[i]. On the other hand it was associated with good things such as presents or the Boxing Day when Christmas presents are opened.

- The box allowed a feeling of freedom that was only overcome after a few days since it was a kind of alien in their place. It was a slightly worrying for them to accept it because there was a sense of obligation to work with it. However after overcome the freedom allowed the temporary owner to even be ironic in its interventions.

- The result was in some way the imprint of a statement in the box of their egos while living with it. Nevertheless this attitude reveals a sense of identity by living their fingerprints quite literally or just metaphorically.

- The impact in the space was not much relevant because the house as they described was almost a building site, so it didn’t disturb any kind of harmony!

- In the end there was a slight affection by the box due to its presence even though if it was for a very short period of time.

[i] VII

Jumbled in one common box

Of their dark stupidity,

Orchid, swan, and Caesar lie;

Time that tires of everyone

Has corroded all the locks

Thrown away the key for fun.

In its cleft the torrent mocks

Prophets who in days gone by

Made a profit on each cry,

Persona grata now with none;

And a jackass language shocks

Poets who can only pun.

Silence Settles on the clocks;

Nursing mothers point a sly

Index finger at a sky,

Crimson in the setting sun;

In the valley of the fox

Gleams the barrel of a gun.

Once we could have made the docks,

Now it is too late to fly;

Once too often you and I

Did what we should not have done;

Round the rampant rugged rocks

Rude and ragged rascals run.

Song by W. H. Auden, 1941

Monday, 24 August 2009

(Assembly) - The ULTIMATE SECRET, 101 Ideas to storm the Art World

PRESS RELEASE

THE ULTIMATE SECRET
101 Ideas to storm the Art World

Pedro Lopes – September 5, 2009. Pedro Lopes has developed over the last year a Manual about 101 ideas to storm the Art World. This manual is the first of its kind giving the reader sensible and objective ideas with detailed information such as recommendations and necessary materials. The ideas stated in the manual were accurately considered in order to be a ready success within the cutting edge of contemporary art. The Official book Launch will happen on the 10th of September at 5.30 pm in the Norwich Art Centre. The sales of the manual will start on the 5th of September at the Norwich University College of the Arts.
Norwich was chosen due to its increasingly relevant implications in the Art scene in England, giving the city and the Artists community a central role.

The Manual contains numerous references to the British and International Art Scene giving in depth reflections about several famous works of art. The Ideas given in the manual are very open allowing the readers to interpret them in different ways. Adding to all this, the ideas have a touch of humour which makes reading the manual pleasurable.

The Author is an Artist who has exhibited his work throughout Europe. Pedro Lopes experience as an artist was the motivating factor that drove him to dedicate the last 3 years to studying and analysing art history in order to be able to offer accurate and exhaustive information about what can and can’t be made in the Art World nowadays. This comprehensive list of ideas aims to help and touch artists as well as the general public.

Sunday, 14 June 2009

(Assembly) - Civilization and its Discontents

A Book by Sigmund Freud that unveils some of the relations between the individual and the society.

The reading of this book provided me with different and renewed views on culture from a more intimate point of view and with more information and discoveries of mysteries that are very enigmatic when someone is faced with such situations in our everyday life.

The book has as main topics some ambiguities between conformity and repression and some of the most instinctive needs and actions that humans beings do when in distress or in other peculiar situations that we so often start to see in the streets so regularly.

The civilization as a mechanism that is in need of constant regeneration and change from the people that make part of it.

It gives a lucid and pragmatic view on this issues that take the form of shadows of the human nature.

Saturday, 6 June 2009

(Assembly) - (Art meets theatre in the middle zone)

Émile Durkheim identified the theatre as being derived from the oldest forms of religious or spiritual ceremonial, which were the way in which a society would initiate and reinforce cultural beliefs, in a manner that was collectively witnessed. The theatre almost as a ritual of initiation that is present in our everyday and in which we are the main contributors to the enchantment of the absurd!

The boundaries between the art object and everyday life are opened up to such an extent that to engage with the work means to enter a performative reality in equal measure. In this respect the following artists participated in an exhibition at the TATE in 2007.

Pawel Althamer

Cezary Bodzianowski

Ulla von Brandenburg

Jeremy Deller

Trisha Donnelly

Geoffrey Farmer

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

Jeppe Hein

Renata Lucas

Rita McBride

Markus Schinwald

Roman Ondak

Catherine Sullivan

Mario Ybarra

Andrea Frazer

Tino Sehgal

These artists made part of an exhibition in the Tate in 2007 with the name ‘The world as a stage’. Their works is a conjunction of several mediums from sculpture and installation to video and performance. The common factor is the theatricality that is enclosed within their works as a determinant factor to the understanding and interactivity in their works. These artists in some way illustrate the concerns of some of authors such as Richard Kostelanetz and Michael Fried.

Each one of the artist has its own medium and a way of expressing themselves but the reason that unites them is not just a concept, but the way they face their work as a live stage that encompasses an ambiguous mise en scene that is individualized and appropriated by each spectator. Even though they are a small group of artists their works in some way make me reflect of art as already a theatre stage where each exhibition is a play and each work is a stage. This apparent dichotomy is very present and not so much abstract if we consider the actions that are necessary to activate an artwork and all the schemes that trap in some way the spectator as a fly that is obfuscated by light. Art as far as I am concerned was always theatrical but nowadays this term seems to come to light as a more present expression that leads the artwork to a mere fragment/residues or even an essence that as shape or an action may be consistent or not. The object becomes then a mirage because the work became concerned not with what stays but rather what leaves. What I want to say by this is that the object is no more a document, it become almost a fragrance in the air that is only apprehended by an impulse representative of an action.

Tino sehgal as far as I am concerned can be considered these days as an exponent of this practice!

Sunday, 31 May 2009

(Assembly) - The delusion of actions

Action is itself a dubious a concept that emanates from itself contradictions and dilemmas and it is even worst when it derives from a reaction. Action is a rotting word.

Actions are literally theatrical events that by their performance side are passive statements!

You may well argue that art is by its nature a reaction to the world we live in. (if we take by example the fascists countries repressing the artistic community by their freedom of thoughts!)

Nevertheless even in a democratic country the artist became literally a Dandy! This sense of vanity leads to incoherence and vulnerability in the artwork. The society is itself the reason why the artist became somehow drifted away from its integrity perhaps!

The shaman that the artist should somehow impersonate is nothing more than pure simulation.

These are some of the factors that give us clarity of where we are:

Loss and absence
Withdrawal of the painting into theatricality, artifice, and coded cultural, representation of kitsch
Delusions of romantic oneness
Fraudulent social order
Commodity
Utopian desires
False promises of consumerism

This leads to an art which is only theatrical !

The action of the artist cease to have any meaning, but the way they are regarded as residues that in some way perpetuate an essence of a loss of action, become a reaction that doesn’t lead anywhere!

It is pertinent to ask where our romantic dedication and beliefs is? This is what I try to ask myself.

(This is an open statement with no intentions whatsoever to harm or insult any creative activity or individual)

Monday, 25 May 2009

(Assembly) - Authenticity in times of political and historical collapse !

Where is Joseph Beuys soul!?

The process of death leads us to the conclusion of some question!

The chart itself begins by decoding the several meanings and purposes of form but in the end besides the chart gaining the aspect of an object all the information became objectified, the conclusion is that objectification became an autonomous process that is inherent to our nature. Objectification alone is already a morbid process because is directly related with the death of its reference!

Sunday, 17 May 2009

(Assembly) - To be or not to be that was never a question when it comes to Theatricality in the artwork

Theatricality in works of art is always perceived as live stages that encompasses different layers of understanding and perception!

Theatricality can be understood in many different ways, but will still remains as an undefined term because it encloses so many characteristics that can be found in completely different artworks, whether it is in a work from Mark Rothko or by Mathew Barney! Nevertheless it is always a group of materials or factors that are determined to be set together with a specific intention.

This assemblage of objects/characters becomes the set for a performance; an interactive action; or just simply contemplation. The paradigm of contemporary theatre reflects upon its history and the relevance and importance of its legacy and perhaps the pertinence of innovation and criticism.

The pertinence of theatricality in the art world is not something can be put aside because it is inherent to the system of creation and creativity. When a work is set up in an exhibition the artists had reasons why to display in that way or even why to make that work. Those same interests of the artist are already present as a simulation and recreation of some kind in order to set up a plan of what may happen or not!

Action itself is something that involves rhythm and dynamism and these are attributes of the contemporary theatre, but these same attributes are also crucial to the display and understanding of an art work!

The object by itself is part of a system that revolves around itself, and this system corresponds to certain rules that are in some way the reenactment of life that the object will suffer, which are present in the mise en scene of a grand work of art independently of its medium.

Nevertheless when an art work gains the attributes mentioned before, the importance that it gains is still less relevant compared to the action that is required to access the work and its meaning. By this the object implies a set of actions that are inherent to its understanding.

However if the action is not taken but simply understood is still a center of chaos and constant dynamic. A total immersion that despite all the factors will still imply a great deal of simulation and spectacle! Ilya Kabakov takes it further with the essays on total installation.

When an object assumes a reference to its function it becomes clear that has a notion, functionality concerns its meaning and by that the stage is ready to receive the guests!

Even when the assemblage of objects is itself a radon collage of objects the group forms something that has a meaning. However if there is different layers between the nature of the objects it is natural that contradictions will arise. In addition that conflict is already part of a set of consequences that were indicated by the audience and that obviously presupposes that a stage for an action has happened even if for only a couple of seconds.

Nevertheless the arrangement of a work can be quite literally translated as a mise en scene that a set of actions has allowed! Something that is staged, but suddenly over layers the object but at the same time gives it other capacity of understandings between the public and the actors that become one alone. The spectator is then the author of something and the author/artist is nothing more than a piece in the all game of playfulness and joy!

Sunday, 10 May 2009

(Assembly) - Pablo Helguera - The art world magnified

Today I would like to give as reference one book that I found deeply entertaining but still with great depth of understanding on the subject.

The book is called: Manual of Contemporary art Style, and its author is Pablo Helguera.

The book in some way demystifies the riddle that is the art world. Pablo in his book approaches the role of the Collector; Curator; Museums Directors; Critics; Dealers and Artists. Pablo makes a pragmatic approach to their roles always with a point of irony. It becomes almost a book of manners in order to behave within the art world which causes initially some scepticism in the reader due to its almost ruthless but merciful interpretation of the profound knowledge that he was about the art world. It is in some way this dichotomy that makes so interesting the reading of this book.

Barbara Pollack says that Helguera “has a savvy understanding of art history and art audiences, enough to know that a little humour and a bit of irony are sometimes the best tools in an artist’s arsenal.

Please feel free to immerse yourselves in a world where there are never open doors, instead hidden doors!

There are other books of reference of relevance and with a similar touch of irony!

Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton

http://www.panamericanismo.org/bio.html

Monday, 4 May 2009

(Assembly) - Politics behind Museums

Museums have since their creation organized a structure that enabled them to interact and engage with the spectator. Here is a high standard definition of what can be a Museum given by the International Council of Museums¹, "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment, for the purposes of education , study, and enjoyment ".

By this definition we are given a very flexible approach of what a Museum can give to its community. Nevertheless this kind of approac h is not always perceptible by the communities that make part of it, or supposedly should benefit from the institution.

The politics that are hidden behind such institutions are not always the clearest and also tangible by the people that are concerned by the management of the museum.

My aim with this essay is not to investigate how funds are acquired and how horrid are the consequences of that processes. I do not have any intentions in this essay to create similar approaches as Hans Haacke² to its exhibitions and the way he approaches corporations and institutions by creating institutional critiques and being a beneficent of the art system by criticizing it.

I would like analyze today and purpose for this week discussion the fact that takes the museums to display and choose their objects or artifacts. There is an interesting approach to this problem given by Masao Yamaguchi³ when he says “the act of collection involves processes of making latent meaning manifest. Display, therefore, is the artistic creation of new sensitivities toward the world”. This interesting reference contradicts the above of a neutral space and clear intentions. Here we see that inevitably the museum becomes the facilitator of the creation of an aura in the object or artifact. This becomes even more problematic if we think of what happened during the past centuries with the appropriation of objects with no apparent value, and their display was faced as brilliant technique to bring other cultures to the eyes of the western society. The consequences as many of you might know was that the objects were understood as artistic objects without giving to them a proper context until the modern days when the Museums were faced with the necessity of reevaluate their role in society and because of that reformulate the image that they wanted to give to its audience. Once again I come again to Masao yamaguchi when he says that “acts of display do not necessarily cover territories that are well explained and easy classifiable. They involve an intellectual venture into that which is inexplicable and incapable of classification in order to search for new types of order.

After all this we come to the conclusion that several questions should be asked to ourselves and to the institutions that manage the exhibitions that are offered to the communities.

In first place:

How did the objects come to be displayed?

What is at stake in categorizing them as ‘museum quality’?

How were they originally used?

What cultural and material conditions made possible their production?

What were the feelings of those who originally held the object, cherished them, collected them and possessed them?

What is the meaning of the viewer’s relationship to those same objects when they are displayed in a specific museum on a specific day?

Finally:

Do we want a strong initial appeal of wonder that then leads to desire of resonance? Or the other way around!

All these questions are in some way answered by the museums nowadays, but the responses that the viewer receives are far way from being satisfactory.

I believe is our responsibility to ask these questions because the museum is much more than a display case!

1 "ICOM Statutes. International Council of Museums. Retrieved on 2008-04-05.

2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Haacke

3 Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine, Exhibiting Cultures. The poetics and Politics of Museum Display, 1991, Smithsonian Institution Press Washington and London, London.

Sunday, 26 April 2009

(Assembly) - Time Machine

In continuation of the past topics in last week’s I would like to emphasize here the possibility of the use of a time machine to explore different systems that are involved in the creation of something, more specifically in the act of artistic creation.

Time is itself something where our control is very limited and because of that the use of time, as a variable to the process of creativity becomes a must.

Time is a medium that until certain extent is appropriable to our own benefits in order to control and not be controlled.

Would a time machine make our life easier!?

Nevertheless you don’t need it, your imagination is already a source to travel through time and space, and that is in some way used in the creative act! A space where neither time nor space exists!

What I would like to ask you is:

Do you feel yourself in that dimension when interacting with an artwork!?

Is there any sensation or a particular thing that catches your attention to the point to be totally immersed and absent from what surrounds you!

It is relevant to have an answer for these questions because only by answering can we have clear notion of what can be an artwork.

(Artistic Project TBT 2009) - Art Survey

This is a survey that is being done by Pedro Lopes in order to take some conclusions about some visitor’s habits and their preferences in relation to certain topics.

Please answer according to your own beliefs and then post the answers as a comment!

These are the following questions that I would like you to answer:

1. Are you a regular visitor of a museum or any other institution? (If yes, choose two types of exhibitions that you regularly go to:

· Science
· History
· Geology
· Heritage
· Art
· Design
· Sex
· People

(If you answered other option other than Art please go no further and return the survey, if not move to the second question)
2. What is the artistic medium that is generally more appealing to your senses?

· Painting
· Sculpture
· Installation
· Drawing
· Video
· Performance
· Photography
· Other

3. What are your favorite Artists?

4. How much time do you spend in a Museum/Institution in average

· 1 to 30 min.
· 31 to 60 min.
· 61 to 90 min.
· 91 to 120 min.
· 121 to 150 min.
· 151 to 180 min.
· More

5. How much time do time do you spend in each display case/work/piece?

· Less than 1 min.
· 1 to 5 min.
· 6 to 10 min.
· 11 to 15 min.
· 16 to 20 min.
· 21 to 25 min.
· 26 to 30 min.
· More

6. Do you have a Museum/Institution of your preference?

7. How many exhibitions do you visit per year?

· 1 to 10
· 11 to 20
· 21 to 30
· 31 to 40
· More

8. How many exhibitions have transformed your day?

· 1 to 5
· 6 to 10
· 11 to 15
· 16 to 20
· More

9. How many times do you go to a Museum/Institution Bathroom during an exhibition?

· never
· 1 to 2
· 3 to 4
· More

10. Have you already bought a work from an artist you like?

· No
· Yes (How many?)