Mapping h.arta

According to Brian O’Doherty the characteristics of relationship between gallery and public can be extracted also from analyzing the typical representation of the spectator in installation photographs. O’Doherty talks about photos in which the visitor is always seen from behind, alone, photos in which his/her attitude is a special one, adequate only to this isolated space and in the same time different to his/her daily gestures and attitudes. In the h.arta documentary photos, exhibitions have always been presented in relation to the public, who is an active participant and not a lifeless object which is part of the display. In these pictures, people talk, listen to each other, go through info materials, drink coffee, watch videotapes, ask questions, discuss the works, etc. The most important thing that can be extracted from these pictures, the truly essential quality captured in them consists in people’s gestures, in the way in which these gestures interact with each other, beyond the space which hosted them, beyond the exhibitions which were nothing but a pretext to these gestures. Because of all these only the images of those people have been preserved in the work, people who actually visited the gallery, their presence being the essential element for h.arta.


2003, The Last East European Show, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

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