The desire to move viewers out of the role of passive observers and into                  the role of producers is one of the hallmarks of twentieth-century art. This                  tendency can be found in practices and projects ranging from El Lissitzky's                  exhibition designs to Allan Kaprow's happenings, from minimalist objects to                  installation art. More recently, this kind of participatory art has gone so far as                  to encourage and produce new social relationships. Guy Debord's celebrated argument                  that capitalism fragments the social bond has become the premise for much relational                  art seeking to challenge and provide alternatives to the discontents of contemporary                  life. This publication collects texts that place this artistic development in                  historical and theoretical context. Participation begins with writings that provide                  a theoretical framework for relational art, with essays by Umberto Eco, Bertolt                  Brecht, Roland Barthes, Peter B?rger, Jen-Luc Nancy, Edoaurd Glissant, and F?lix                  Guattari, as well as the first translation into English of Jacques Ranci?re's                  influential "Problems and Transformations in Critical Art." The book also includes                  central writings by such artists as Lygia Clark and H?lio Oiticica, Joseph Beuys,                  Augusto Boal, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. And                  it features recent critical and curatorial debates, with discussions by Lars Bang                  Larsen, Nicolas Bourriaud, Hal Foster, and Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Copublished with                  Whitechapel Art Gallery, London

Participation PDF

The list of books you might like