Tutorial Questions: Week 5

Reading – Politics of Installation by Boris Groys

1. How does Groys describe the relationship between the “field or art” and the “art market”?
   
   – Artwork identified as a commodity.
   – They’re equivalent to each other.
   
   
2. What is the main two concepts that he seeks to differentiate through an “analysis of difference” at the bottom of page one?
   
   – Differentiate between artist and curator roles and difference between arts production and exhibition.
   – Analyse the standard exhibition and artistic installation.
   
   
3. How is an art exhibition and an art installation different in Groys’ view? How does he describe the viewer/audience in relationship to each?
   
   – Exhibition: public space, viewer chooses what to see, viewer is seperate from the art (similar to walking down the street and choosing to go down an alley way or through a park).
   – Installation: private space, viewer becomes a part of installation, anything included in the vicinity becomes a part of it.
   
   
4. How would you describe an “exhibition”? How does Groys describe the “exhibition space”?
   
   – Structured way of showing/displaying something.
   – Empty neutral space, symbolic property of the public, only function is to make art in the space easily accessible for those who wish to look at it.
   
   
5. What is the role of a “curator”, both in the past and in the present time?
   
   – Act on behalf of the public in choosing pieces with a reason, work has to justified, display items in a neutral environment.
   
   
6. What do you think a “defunctionalized design fragment” is?
   
   – Something taken out of the context it was intended for and repurposed to be an object that is exhibited.
   – taking away the function… a piece taken out of a design that loses function when removed from original context.
   
   
7. When, in Groys view, did artists begin to seek autonomy/freedom/sovereignty for their work?
   
   – “In the course of modern era”, as a way of making whatever they wanted.
   
   
8. How would you describe an “installation”? How does Groys describe the “installation” as a space?
   
   – Usually not permanent, put in a spaces that challenges people from what they would usually see.
   – Private space designed in the artists own intentions, transformed space into a holistic experience for viewer.
   
   
9. What does an installation do to a space, that an exhibition does not?
   
   – Takes over the space, transforms the whole space into an individual artwork, invites the viewer in, no distinction between what is considered an ‘art object’ or a ‘simple object’.
   
   
10. In relationship to last weeks lecture (landscape part 2), do you see and relationship between “installation” and colonisation or land ownership?
    
    – Installation uses the space and anyone who comes into it, it takes for itself in the same way that land was often taken or manipulated during colonisation, those in and around are seen as something to be controlled or used.
    – Installation artist has control over those viewing the work and their role in the piece.
    
    
11. What different kinds of “freedom” does Groys write that artists and curators embody? Is it always the same or has it changed over time/in different situations?
    
    – Artists: Use to create work that they could be sure would be shown in an exhibition, now they have freedom to make whatever they want without needing to justify it- art can’t be wrong, you cant argue someones decision making.
    – Curators: ‘Freedom’ to choose which pieces they want but they have to be able to justify them to the public (they work for the public) so they’re not really ‘free’ to choose, they can argue their reasoning (their reasons for those choices can’t be rejected but the individual art pieces can be).
    – This changes over time and depending on the situation.
    
    
12. What does Groys write is the relationship between democracy or democratic access to installation art?
    
    – Western idea of freedom is open to interpretation and installations allow these differences to be explored, “Indeed the artistic installation is often viewed today as a form that allows the artist to democratize his or her art, to take public responsibility, to begin to act in the name of a certain community or even of society as a whole”.
    
    
13. How does Groys see installation art as reflecting contemporary society? Can we see spatial design and architecture in a similar light? Why/Why not?
    
    – “Contemporary art space is a space in which multitudes can view themselves and celebrate themselves”.
    – Contemporary society allows people to be themselves and doesn’t have as many rules/restrictions as it previously did, people have the opportunity to express themselves and they can do this through art.