nicolas bourriaud: postproduction




INTRO

art as network of signs & significations
// originál je asociálny. originalita ako melanchólia za povýšenectvom vysokého umenia.
// vytvor originál ako dielo, ktoré sa ničoho netýka, z ničoho nečerpá, na nič nenadväzuje, unikátny kúsok bez odkazov a iné,
// si jeho Autor a nenížiš sa ku kopírovaniu, plagiátorstvu, reprodukcii, to je pre teba nízke. postava A.
// postava B - DJ / programátor, pracuješ s nájdeným materiálom, s tým čo je okolo a ponúka sa.

finding a means of insertion into the innumerable flows of production
Things and thoughts advance or grow out from the middle, and that's where you have to got to work,
that's where everything unfolds.
Deleuze, Negotiations, 1995

limits of art not interesting anymore.

"how can we make do with what we have?"
Wittgenstein: dont look for the meaning, look for the use.

inventing protocols of use.
// nájsť stretnutému, zažitému, nájdenému použitie.

invention of paths through culture.
"semionaut" (DJ, web surfer, postprod artist) produces original pathways through signs.
active inhabitation of cultural and social forms.
producing of new cartographies of knowledge.

Duchamp: isnt art a game among all men of all eras?
postproduction = contemporary form of this game.
// kritika ako niečo, čo ma teší; dar; ktosi mi venoval pozornosť, energiu, záujem,
// venoval mi text, slová, čas. pozerať na kritiku ako Cage na minulosť: past doesnt influence me, i influence it.

work of art as site of navigation, portal, generator of activities
Duchamp: it is the viewers who make the paintings
meaning is born of collaboration and negotiation between artist and one who comes to view the work.

reprogramming existing works.
inhabiting historicized styles and forms.
making use of images.
using society as a catalog of forms.
investing in fahion and media.


 production  postproduction 
 art as autonomous, original form  art as network of signs & significations 
 starting with blank slate, or creating meaning on basis of virgin material      finding a means of insertion into the innumerable flows of production 
 "what can we make that is new?"  "how can we make do with what we have?" 
 compose forms  program forms 
 transfigure raw element (blank canvas..)  remix available forms and make use of data 
 doing performance  using performance-form 
 work of art as finished product      work of art as site of navigation, portal, generator of activities 






USE OF OBJECTS

consumption as a mode of production,
product only becomes a real product in consumption
(šaty vo výklade objekt, šaty na mne tak ako boli vo výklad produkt)

to use an object is necessary to interpret it [INTERPRETATION] // použijem objekt podľa seba
to use a product is to betray its concept [REPRESENTATION]. //použijem objekt podľa manuálu

de Certeau: each artwork is inhabitable in the manner of a rented appartment.
Broodthaers: od Duchampa je umelec autorom novej definície objektu, ktorý si vybral.
Duchamp's readymade ~ to give a new idea to an object is already a production.
creation ~ inserting object into a new scenario, as a character at narration

EU NEW REALISM (Arman, César, Spoerri) - interested in act of consumption [sociological] (use value vs exchange value)
US POP ART (Warhol, Oldenburg, Rosenquist) - interested in visual impetus podnecujúci získanie objektu [iconographic]
SIMULATIONISM (90s; Koons, Levine, Steinbach) - Kruger: i buy therefore i am
subject of marketing = object of desire located inbetween available and inaccessible
simulacra - images born of a market study more than of "inner need", which is already an outmoded value






USE OF FORMS

Godard: if a viewer says, 'the film i saw was bad', i say, 'it's your fault, what did you do 
so that the dialogue would be good?

copyleft ~ communism of forms

any DJ bases work on avantgarde art: detournement, reciprocal/assisted readymades, dematerialization of activities..
crossfader @ middle - 2 samples simultaneously.
pitch control - up/down speed of record.
toasting, rapping, MCing.
cutting.
playlists.

frame = boundary that presents framed object from lapsing into instability and abstractionl
meanings are first produced by a social framework.


 high culture:
 ideology of framing.
exact delineation of object, category.
regulated by codes of presentation 		 low culture:
exaltation of outer limits.
bad taste.
transgression.
(but sill its own framing system 


Debord: detournement is not a negation of style, but the style of negation.

20th century art: montage (succession of images) + détourage (superimposition of images)

decontextualization of mass-produced object,
displacement of works from the canon toward commonplace contexts.


 production  postproduction 
 artworks as obstacles  artworks as building materials (obstacles made banal by detournement) 
 ecstatic consumer (80s)  intelligent, potentially subversive consumer, user of forms 
 quest for new  to positivize the remake 
 telos = progress, avantgarde  to articulate uses 
 quest for the forbidden and the sublime  to place forms in relation to each other 


John Armleder: you might say that the choice of an object has to do with an overall decision that is formalist,
but this system favors decisions that are completely external to form:
my final choice makes fun of he somewhat rigid sysetm that i use to start with.
if i am looking for a Bauhaus sofa of a certain length, i might end up bringing back a Louis XVI.
my work undermines itself: all the theoretical reasons end up being negated or mocked by the execution of the work.

in Bertrand Lavier's work, categories, genres, and modes of representation are what generate forms and not the reverse.

overproduction is no longer seen as a problem, but as a cultural ecosystem.

postprod artists also reedit historical or ideological narratives, inserting the elements that compose
them into alternative scenarios.
human society is structured by narratives, immaterial scenarios, which are more/less claimed as such
and are translated by lifestyles, relationships to work/leisure, institutions, and ideologies.
ekonómovia -> world market scenarios. "čo bude s obchodom?"
politicians -> plans, discourses for future. "čo bude s krajinou?"
division of labor = dominant employment scenario. "ako ťa zamestnať?"
heterosexual married couple = dominant sexual scenario. "ako spolu sex?"
television, tourism = dominant leisure scenario. "čo idem robiť?"
art brings collective scenarios to consciousness (not as facts, but tools)
and offers us other pathways through reality (formy ich materializujú).

postprod artists do not make a distinction between their work and that of others, 
or between their own gestures and those of viewers.

Pierre Joseph: we reside within an enormous image zone, rather than in front of images;
art is not another spectacle, but an exercise of detourage.
submission to a form = dictatorship,
democracy = constant role play, endless dicussion and negotiation.






USE OF WORLD

* 90s: exhibition space = decor + film set + information center.

generation of Daniel Pflumm and Pierre Huyghe refuses metonymy ("rooftops" for "the city").
konceptualisti: social critique through critique of institutions (Marx's analytical materialism).

socius = true exhibition site of contemporary artists, ~ public space.
art centers and galleries are only part of it.
galleries, clubs, T-shirts, records, schools, streets.
"gallery is a space like any other."

Althusser: real critique is a critique of existing reality by existing reality itself.

Parreno: images @ reality ~ symptoms ~ unconscious
Lacan: unconscious is neither individual, neither collective, it exists in the middle, which is beginning of all narrative.
(subject of marketing = object of desire located inbetween available and inaccessible)

Huyghe: "what do you do for living?" -> "what are you doing with your life?"
free time as time for organized consumption.






HOW TO INHABIT GLOBAL CULTURE

mode of production of Coca Cola bottle - all that matters is formula, 
not the place in which it is made or identity of person who makes it.

reader = postproducer.

Pierre Levy, 1994:
"soft" interaction - receiver only invited to fill in the blanks, to choose between possible meanings.
cyberspace - no separation transmission vs reception, composition vs interpretation.

kitsch as mass, nonindividual sign consumption, impersonal opinion substituted for individual choice.

to rewrite modernity is historical task @ early 21th century: 
not to start at zero or find oneself cucumbered by storehouse of history, 
but to inventory and select, to use and download; global culture as a toolbox, open narrative space.






ARTISTS

Maurizio Cattelan 
Francis Alys
Philippe Parreno, 2
Pierre Huyghe
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Liam Gillick
Pierre Joseph, 2
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Jason Rhoades
Jorge Pardo