Announcing the results of our ‘unsolicited proposal’ selection! (Round 2)
It’s here at last: autumn, the season of art. So exclusively for the enjoyment and edification of ART iT readers, this issue we present a proposal from Monika, of Poland. Apparently Monika has already presented it at an exhibition for her diploma, but it’s such a curiously compelling idea I simply couldn’t resist. Let’s see, I think it went like this: the artist places a series of cards in glass cases installed in the gallery, and visitors follow the instructions thereon to play certain games. All these ‘games’ are more than a little surreal, and not a little bizarre. If everyone did play them as instructed, it would have been quite a sight. As in, people standing around the gallery holding up cardboard boxes, couples swearing their undying devotion, people battling with teabags…
I get the feeling that contrary to the creator’s intention, in reality it would become a scene of great intensity, yet suffused with an unmistakable ambivalence. A place where participants wrestled with the conflicting desires to serve the cause of art, and avoid acute embarrassment; a place of confusion, as they pondered whether the ought to feel uplifted, or simply burst out laughing. What sort of games would I come up with? ‘Players all to bow three times to the person next to them and say “Poh” ‘, ‘Take out the most precious thing you have on you and compose a poem about it’, ‘Switch a random light switch in the venue on, or off’, ‘Do a ten-minute impersonation of your mother or father’ etc etc. The possibilities are endless.
Just imagine what a blast it would be if everyone got into the spirit. There’d be those horribly embarrassed by the whole exercise, those with an apologetic grin giving up halfway through, those applying themselves to the task with serious dedication. Potentially a wonderful microcosm of human behavior.
Exhibition proposal
Name
Monika Rendzner (Tokyo-based independent curator)
Title
Manual CC
Synopsis
A series of games utilising the concept of the Creative Commons (CC) licence. Visitors follow the instructions of the artist in a format, time and location of their own choosing to reproduce the duce the work. The project was born out of a fascination with conceptual striving for a dematerialisation of the artwork, vague authorship, the primacy of the idea over its completion, and a particular sort of humor. Presented in 2007 for a diploma at Jagiellonian University (Poland).
Exhibits
The cards are placed in display cases. Visitors can pick up and collect copies of the original instructions.
Budget
Manufacturing cost of display cases, cost of printing cards. The assumption is that almost no expense will be incurred in production of the works according to the instructions on the cards.
Venue
Anytime, either as an exhibition or an event / in an easily accessible venue.
Admission
?\500
Source materials
Instruction card samples by different artists
Originally printed in ART iT No.21 Fall/Winte 2008