Tuesday 6th October 2009, 7:00pm

Session 1: “Toward Participation in Art” by Rudolf Frieling

During this first session of Theory Tuesdays, Philip Matesic launched the discussion platform and presented “Toward Participation in Art” by Rudolf Frieling (2008).

Participants: 9

Discussion:
What determines a successful participatory gesture?
Is a “communal experience” possible?
The individual always takes something.
Entertainment and Spectacle
Being comfortable being uncomfortable
The Smiling Skeptic
The artist’s persona/popularity getting in the way or heightening the experience (Beuys).
Content vs. Popularity
WWI and WWII: The lived experiences of these wars. Artists working with those experiences in mind.
Urgency! in the 1920s and 30s and 1950s and 60s
Lawrence Weiner’s accidental realization that the concept carried the same weight as his (destroyed) sculptural object.
Picking up the pistol at Abramovic’s gallery performance. What would make a person go so far?