Underskog

How is an art piece selected to enter the art world and its critical, institutional, theoretical, physical and economic circulations? What set of methodological, corporeal, conceptual, every day, institutional, ideological, or commonsensical principles are called upon to evaluate a thing and select it to be categorized as an art object? Are compatriots (other artists, friends, art-enthusiasts), galleries/museums (the staging of art), critics (conceptual/material evaluation of art objects and the field of art) or capitalists (life-sustaining imputes to the art field) more important than the supposed artwork itself, (or other factors) for selection of what constitutes art? And, maybe, more significantly is it necessary (for these methodological selections of art to occur) that these different areas of conceptual/material considerations become institutionalized structures in the art world in order that art can be recognized either socially or individually?

Exploring this operation of the art world, and the institutional/Ideological mechanisms which operate as a set of hidden and hegemonic belief systems and material spheres of art production, this lecture will examine the lineage of thought which attempts to interrogate the external controlling mechanisms circulating around the apparatus of art and seek out the possibility of art which could evade the containments of these influences.

Looking at the art of Institutional Critique, which attempts to interrogate these questions, this talk will include Walter Benjamin’s evaluation of the revitalization of art in the public arena, Robert Smithson’s ideas of “cultural confinement”, Hans Haacke’s concerns that gallery spaces “preserve [the] privilege of specific social classes”, and Andrea Fraser’s reintroduction of the artist into the “ideological mechanisms of the artworld”. Additionally, we will give a broad exploration of how the spheres of the art world, implemented in the framing of the art piece (Museum, Gallery, Curator, Artist, Studio), control the mechanisms of understanding and meaning in the art product.

Monday Lectures is a public platform combining invited guest lecturers and professors and researchers of the faculty at KMD. Monday Lectures aim to create a diverse programme of lectures exploring a wide range of disciplines and research topics. Lectures typically take place on Mondays at 10:00 at the Knut Knaus Auditorium and are free and open to all.