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that we really want? As this new identity shapes living conditions in urban and
private life in the smart city, mobile communications and handheld devices are
erasing our personal presence, shifting the focus of accessibility onto the issue of
digital inclusion/exclusion. A conflict has emerged between the individual and the
community which itself is cardinal to the Art System and world of galleries and
museums, which is substantially market-based. In this way, Spatial Art reflects the
constant tension between the multiplicity of individual artists and the organizational
unity of the system in general. There is no other unifying thread for Spatial Art,
and as an element even it, perhaps, is paradoxically absent. All we have are
clips, words, floating objects, statements, made-up chemical formulas, fragments of
non-narrative accounts, elements without structure. What would appear to emerge
is, on the one hand, the figure of the artist as messenger and innovator of roles
and meanings, championing an anti-establishment art; on the other, the artist as
the teller of fragmented narratives of reality and immateriality. They are witnesses
of a fundamental anthropological change because as artists they are outsiders to
the art market and the system in general, taking on an ethical role on which their
exhibitions are premised. Their standing outside the system in general makes them
morally invincible and irreproachable, and if what they do is illegal, it means they
are treading on fiercely contested ground.
Artwork that is secret, or invisible or in some way a 'revelation' in space also
takes on an aesthetic element shaped by the artist's being an outsider to the Art
System, to the world of art based on economic rather than cultural value. For
mainstream art scenes, not producing for the market is ultimately the last real
statement that the artist can make against the art world, a form of rejection of
capitalism and its modes of production, which for some takes on an existential
bent. These are artists who live in society and not in museums, who are in touch
with social and political issues, which is why their art tends to revolve more around
'action' than around pieces of artwork. The picture is ultimately connected with
the role and responsibility of the artist as a pioneer and critic, as a witness and as
a futurologist in a certain sense—as a person who can bring about change even
through simple, surreptitious gestures. This image of the artist may well be just a
myth—but why reject it and the evocative appeal that it continues to command?
References
Bolter JD, Grusin R. Remediation. Understanding new media. Cambridge, UK: MIT Press; 1999.
Bridle J. The New Aesthetic, Really Interesting Group (blog), May 6, 2011, blog
http://www.
riglondon.com/blog/2011/05/06/the-new-aesthetic
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Accessed 24 Apr 2012.
Carpenter J. They live, dir., (Alive Films, Larry Franco Production), 1988. Based on the short story
Eight O'Clock in the Morning
by Ray Nelson.
CONT3XT.NET, Blemish, May 30, 2011. The Invisible Pavilion, official website.
http://www.
theinvisiblepavilion.com/2011/05/30/pixelerror/
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Accessed 21 Apr 2012.
Foucault M. Naissance de la Biopolitique: Cours au Collège de France, 1978-1979. Paris:
Gallimard/Seuil; 2004.
