Reconfiguring Private and Public Space in Contemporary Art Practices

Abstract

The discussion of contemporary art practices in relation to an ever-shifting present moment and at the intersection of local social spaces and corporative financial systems is faced with a particular problem, characteristic to post-1960s artistic and critical production as well as education. This concerns a popular demand that the work of art somehow hinges on theory, and results in a quasi-criticality that needs only to be secured by a tangential reference to some theoretical framework. In view of the rapid technological advancements of this century, an ensuing question is whether increasingly complex networks of interaction and instant information make this demand, or its negotiation, any clearer. Jennifer Johung's Replacing Home and Grant H. Kester's The One and the Many discuss activities that engage with the interpersonal and intercommunal across public spaces. Both books present a number of case studies within their socio-political and institutional contexts; however, the evaluation of their critical potential differs. Replacing Home is well structured around the author's interest in the ways in which we experience spatial situations, placement, and replacement, and the interconnected networks of bodies and spaces. It traces the desire to be at place and to belong at home in works such as Dan Graham's Two-Mirror Cylinder Inside Cube (1981–91), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Vectorial Elevation series (1999–2000), and the exhibition Odd Lots (2005) commissioned by Cabinet magazine, and features cross-disciplinary applications such as architectural and garment design. Even so, Johung's book appears at times to be celebrating that which might be possible rather than critically analysing what is actualised. In contrast, the implications and particular nuances of realising and sustaining collaborative artistic projects in public spaces is precisely Kester's focal point.