WAA.034

ART BEYOND GALLERY: James Lingwood, Jan Hoet, Kasper König; ICA, London; 20/2/88

This recording is of the plenary session from the first part of the conference. The panel members face a number of challenging questions from the audience, including a deconstruction of James Lingwood's rationale for selecting Antony Gormley for the commission in Derry. The questioner asks why Lingwood claimed the work could only exist there, whether they were aiming for a cross section of the public or specific publics, how 'public' is defined and how success is evaluated. Jan Hoet and Kasper König are also asked to defend why their projects did not engage directly with urgent political situations in their respective cities (Ghent and Munster); the questioner suggested that they were clinging to the monument as a form, rather than addressing the impossibility of the monument. The responses propose a problematic defence of art's autonomy. Other questions relate to the nature of participation and the definition of 'alternative' spaces.

The afternoon session sees much of the talk centring around questions of decision making and suitability of process in developing strategies for art in public places: the means for consulting constituencies and for evaluating reception of work, recruitment and the employment of 'named' artists against unknown ones (discussion around Richard Serra), and the potential to develop a code of practice as opposed to a blueprint for such projects.

The question of 'authenticity' is raised again: people ask whether the intervention of commissioning and administrative agencies blocks the possibility for direct, 'entrepreneurial' activity in the public realm by artists; whether meaning in a work can function at both a general and local level; and how the discussion of authenticity can be had at all when those involved are not representative of the population in terms of race, gender and class status. There is also a disagreement about the nature of art's responsibility in public spaces - integration or 'disintegration'.


Keywords


Accession No. WAA.034
Artist: ART BEYOND GALLERY: James Lingwood, Jan Hoet, Kasper König
Container annotation: Tape 2
Place/Year: ICA, London 20/2/88
Type: Conference
Technical aspects:
Duration: 90'
Tape capacity: 90
Tape brand: TDK