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 Wall Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions Relatore: Prof. ssa Marilisa Di Giovanni Correlatore: Prof. Natale Salvatore Bonfiglio Tesi di laurea specialistica di: Sonia Aggio

Text Section I – Participation through Contemporary Art Section II – Typologies, Theories and Philosophies Section III – Creating participation: Projects & Exhibitions Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions2 Scope  Could Participation become a new way of curating an exhibition? Scope  Could Participation become a new way of curating an exhibition? This research wants to define whether of not this is possible and with which basis.

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

4Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions DUCHAMP 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 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

The Heyday 5Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions Years in 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 OP ART 4’33’’ Physical engagement of the viewer Environments intended to provide viewer with a total experience A matter of chance Noises in the environment and produced by the audience

6Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 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 FLUXUS 18 Happenings in 6 Parts Aim to bring art and life together Incorporated participation and life into the works YOKO ONO The artist invited the viewer to collaborate Involved directly the audience moving together to experience the element of the Happennig Cut Piece Ability to move viewers to surprising actions, and disturb their sense of self and others

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

The Last Twenty Years 8Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 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)

Typologies, Theories and Philosophies The GesamtkunstWerk 9Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions Total work of art The Open Work Openess = possibility of multiple interpretations of a text It goes to the extreme with avant-garde movements? When becomes noise? 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 ‘Deviation from the code’ Synesthesia Simultaneous poetry Visual poetry

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

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

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

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

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World Beach Project Virtual Society 16Beyond the Wall: Participation in Contemporary Art and Exhibitions 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

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

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

Grazie