Please Touch, Use and Destroy Transgression, Boundaries and the Public Art Institution

Please Touch, Use and Destroy Transgression, Boundaries and the Public Art Institution

Led by Martine Rouleau, lecturer at Goldsmiths College and Birkbeck College.

Art institutions have great power and responsibility in determining not only what constitutes art but also how we produce it and how we respond to it. Although art, institutions and audiences are often referred to as autonomous entities, they are engaged in a dynamic negotiation that contributes to the constant redefinition of the art institution's physical and symbolic boundaries.

From the architectonic structure of the institutions to the implicit and explicit rules and regulations that pervade its gallery space, the boundaries of the institution are what defines its aesthetic, social and economic roles. They also contribute to the creation and the education of audiences. Hans Haacke, Andrea Fraser, Maurizio Cattelan, Marina Abramovic, Mad for Real, WochenKlausur, Superflex and many others have made work focusing on the productive tensions between intuitions, audiences and artists.

But what does an artist or a member of the audience gain by challenging these structures? What differs between the position of the critical artists and that of the critical audience? Can works of art that are critical of institutional authority operate a fundamental change in its boundaries? How directly do critical works of art have to engage with the boundaries of the institution for them to have an impact in and out the institution?