Art Lies, Volume 28, Fall 2000 Page: 17
112 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Luis Camnitzer
THE LANGUAGE OF INSTALLATION/LENGUAJES DE INSTALACION
By Abdel Hernindez
Translated by Surpik Angelini... From its beginnings, art must have been a comprehensive
discipline encompassing many fields of knowledge.'
-Luis Camnitzer
Today, a number of important artists from Latin America
are deconstructing canonic institutional representations
through vital African and Amerindian values in their cul-
tures while they also explore current contemporary subjects
such as "the body," "everyday life," "the city," making sig-
nificant linguistic and conceptual contributions in the
postmodern circuits of the so called "international art."
However, we seldom attempt to surpass the level of a sim-
plistic review of exhibitions, offering the reader an inter-
disciplinary analysis of the artists's experimentations with
language. With this impetus and based on a recent visit to
an exhibition titled The Fence at the Blue Star Art Space in
San Antonio, I will discuss the contributions made to the
genre of installation art and to the
conception of artistic language by its
renowned author, the New York
based Uruguayan conceptual artist
Luis Camnitzer.
It is a well known fact that for
many Latin American artists instal-
lation art has become a significant
genre. One of the most fascinating
aspects of this revival is that this
venue is an ideal genre for creators
that conceive works made specially
for the occasions to which they havebeen invited, anticipating and
incorporating their own awareness
of the public realm of images and
discourses through which their
work will be seen. Thus, installation
art has become a venue to articulate
"provisional" discourses, hypothesis,
momentary experimentations con-
ceived from inception as "a box of
tools," to use Deleuze and
Foucault's term, whereby an art
work becomes a reference in a
broader debate or a discussion.Putting its thematics aside, the work presented by
Camnitzer in San Antonio invites us to reflect on the art of
installation as language. Today, many installations are
merely a means to place sculptures or other types of tradi-
tional plastic actions in space. Contrast-ing this practice, I
will refer to a "genre of installation," as I approach this
exhibition, referring to "genre" as a type of formative rule
(Lyotard), in other words, norms through which visual lan-... Desde sus inicios, el arte debe haber sido una actividad
comprensiva que abarcaba muchos campos de
conocimiento.'
-Luis Camnitzer
En la actualidad, numerosos artistas importantes de
Am6rica Latina estin deconstruyendo representaciones
institucionales de Io latinoamericano que se hablan vuelto
can6nicas. Activando desde sus sensibilidades subalternas
valores africanos y amerindios que estan presentes en sus
culturas propias, y explorando temas contemporineos
como el cuerpo, la mujer, la vida cotidiana o la ciudad,
estos creadores estin haciendo significativas contribu-
ciones conceptuales y lingiiisticas a los circuitos posmod-
ernistas del Ilamado "arte internacional". Son pocos, sin
embargo, los estudios que realizamos para, mas alli de
simplemente reportar exposiciones, ofrecer a los lectores
andlisis interdisciplinarios enfocados en las experimenta-
clones con el lenguaje en las obras. En este Empetu, discu-
tird los aportes al genero de la instalacion y la concepci6n
del lenguaje artistico en la obra del reconocido artista con-
ceptual uruguayo residenciado en Nueva York, Luis
Camnitzer, basndome principalmente en mi reciente visi-
ta a la exposici6n The Fence (La Cerca), presentada en el
Centro de Arte Contemporaneo Blue Star de San Antonio.
Es conocido que la instalaci6n ha devenido un genero
privilegiado para muchos artistas latinoamericanos. Uno de
los aspectos mas fascinantes de este revival esta dado por el
hecho de que se trata de un genero id6neo para aquellos
creadores que conciben sus trabajos "personalizandolos"
para las ocasiones mismas a las que son invitados, incorpo-
rando anticipadamente en sus obras la conciencia de los
contextos de circulaci6n de las imagenes y los discursos en
que serdn presentadas. La instalaci6n deviene asi en un
medio para articular discursos "provisionales", lenguajes-
hip6tesis o experimentaciones momentaneas que son
ideadas desde el inicio como "cajas de herramientas" --por
usar un concepto de Deleuze y Foucault--, y que apuntan a
lo que estd en debate, poni6ndolo en discusi6n.
La obra presentada por Camnitzer en San Antonio, dejan-
do a un lado su temitica, nos invita a una reflexi6n sobre la
instalaci6n como lenguaje. Hoy, muchas instalaciones son
elaboradas simplemente como maneras de colocar esculturas
o como tipos de acciones pldsticas tradicionales que se Ilevan
al espacio. En contraste con esto, cuando hablo de genero de
la instalacidn para abordar esta exposici6n, me refiero al
"g6nero" como un tipo de "regla de formaci6n", que en este
caso se refiere a esos modos normativos como puede ser orga-
nizado instalativamente el lenguaje visual con sus diferentes
combinaciones; vale decir, instalaci6n-espacializaci6n textu-
al, instalaci6n-museograffa, instalaci6n-escenograffa.ARTLIES Fall 2000 17
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Angelini, Surpik & Hernández, Abdel. Art Lies, Volume 28, Fall 2000, periodical, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228058/m1/19/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .