Week 75: 17th – 23rd February
My interest in the vitrine as a museological frame for objects in my practice has previously been discussed in relation to the genre of Institutional Critique (week 69). First coined in 1975 in Mel Ramsden’s ‘On Practice’, this term describes a type of practice which combined art and politics in order to question the function of museums, including how economic and ideological interests impact on the production of culture. (Alberro, 2009, pp.7-8)
The anthology ‘Institutional Critique; An Anthology of Artists’ Writings’ edited by Alexander Alberro and Blake Stimson provides a historical overview of the genre, reflecting the scope of practice over four decades, from the late 60s through to the present day. Despite their acknowledgement of a potential institutionalising of institutional critique, Alberro and Stimson’s selection aims to highlight the artists who were most influential within the field, whilst also including previously unpublished works.
Protest strategies and non-participation
The earliest incarnation of Institution Critique yielded various artist manifestos, pamphlets, falsified passes for free entry into exhibitions, sit-ins and boycotts which aimed to disrupt the business of dominant institutions. A particular strategy of the time was non-compliance with the gallery system, where artists such as Eduardo Favario and Daniel Buren closed the gallery for the duration of their exhibition in the late 1960s, while Julio Le Parc and Enzo Mari withdrew from the large scale international festival Documenta IV.
However, this negation of museum practice (most recently expressed in the project ‘The Museum of Non-participation’ by Karen Mirza and Brad Butler) was not an attempt to destroy the institution, but only to hold it accountable to its original promise of the museum as “a democratic site for the articulation of knowledge, historical memory, and self-reflexivity, and as an integral element in the education and social production of civil society.” (Alberro, 2009, p7) In this way, Alberro explains, early exponents of institutional critique “dialectically negated that which was the vehicle of their voice, and yet held on to it at the same time.” (Alberro, 2009, p4)
Tactical media
The institutional critique of the 1980s and early 1990s, significant in the work of Barbara Kruger, the Guerilla Girls and Louise Lawler, drew on distinct forms of advertising and graphic design, creating works which could be easily disseminated to members of the public. Such works took the form of billboards, fliers and videotapes and in order to question the nature of representation in both the media and the artworld. Although Alberro suggests that these strategies could sometimes border on “pure publicity”, he also concedes that often the inclusion of marketing techniques within the frame of the artwork “shows [how] a complex ensemble of promotional, social, and economic activities sustains the position of the artist today and endows works of art with value.” (Alberro, 2009, p13)
These practices, often referred to as “tactical media” have continued to the present day with the advent of the internet as a site for artist practice: “The use of the internet as a tool and site for interventionist critique opens up a whole new range of possibilities with a virtually unlimited public. Art is no longer restricted to material sites of exhibition or to a secondary life in printed catalogues; rather, it now circulates rapidly and more broadly than ever in a world that is becoming ‘more wired’.” (Alberro, 2009, p17)
Developments in Institutional Critique
The introduction of tactical media strategies and the Internet as both a visual format and distribution tool has allowed the frame of reference for art to extend far outside the museum. Collectives like the Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA) and the Yes men combine art and activism, utilising technology and the power of the spectacle to address political concerns. (Alberro, 2009, pp.15-16)
This scope of practice shows that institutional critique is still present in many forms of art both inside and outside the frame of the museum, from its beginnings as an attempt to reconcile the museum with its original purpose, to investigations of the ways in which all areas of public life are affected by modes of production which are complicit with social and economic power. (Alberro, 2009, pp.17-18)
Further reading:
http://ewaneumann.com/websites/haacke/institutional_critique.html
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2012/feb/27/spies-house-institutional-critique
http://mayflybooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/9781906948030ArtContemporaryCriticalPractice.pdf
http://platformlondon.org/2014/04/04/time-for-tate-to-stop-being-so-shady-over-bp-sponsorship
http://www.brandalism.org.uk
