Page 60 - Studio International - January 1969

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Buren working
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Anybody working
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Toroni working
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Anybody working
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Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 2 June 1967

before 150 spectators. Nothing happened. The
public waited a quarter of an hour, half an
hour, an hour; still nothing happened. At a
quarter past ten a leaflet was distributed which
read :
`Obviously you have come here to look at
canvases by Buren, Mosset, Parmentier and
Toroni. What you must look at is :
a canvas 2.50 m x 2.50 m divided into twenty-
nine equal vertical red and white stripes of
which the two outer stripes are white. (Buren) ;
a black circle (interior radius 4.5 cm, exterior
radius 7.8 cm), centred on a white canvas
2.50 m x 2.50 m. (Mosset) ;
alternate grey and white horizontal stripes
each 38 cm apart on a canvas 2.50 m x 2.50 m.
(Parmentier) ;
eighty-five regular blue imprints of a flat brush
each 30 cm apart on a white surface 2.50 m x
2.50 m. (Toroni).'
In October 1967 at the 5th Paris Biennale, the
four paintings were again displayed but this
time photographs were projected on to them
to the accompaniment of a recorded text :
Text
Photographs
Art is the illusion of being
Views of same three pictures for more than a year. In of the canvases, no matter who painted them.
somewhere else. It is not a
St Tropez order to stress the 'autonomy' of their can- In this demonstration the two artists are stating
painting by Buren (spotlight vases, each artist painted and presented both as clearly as possible that the thing they are paint-
projected on to his canvas), his picture and those of the other two. They ing IS. It is therefore of little significance
by Mosset (idem), by Par- stated : whether it was painted by one of themselves,
mentier (idem), by Toroni `The logic of our activities up to the present by someone else or by a machine. In two suc-
(idem). leads us today to say that to call a Buren a cessive interviews which appeared in La Ga-
Views of the zoo Art is the illusion of freedom. Buren, a Mosset a Mosset or a Toroni a Toroni lerie des Arts (February 1968) and Les Lettres
It is not etc. is nothing but an abuse of language. Françaises (March 13, 1968) Buren once again
Art is the illusion of dream-
Little Red `Buren presents a Buren, a Mosset and a stated his case. Clearly it is no longer an artist
Riding Hood Toroni. But all three canvases were painted talking, but a theoretician. Theory and art
ing. It is not etc.
Art is the illusion of sacred-
Shots of a by Buren. are incompatible.
ness. It is not etc.
bullfight `Mosset presents a Mosset, a Buren and a The actual canvases shown by Buren, Toroni
Shots of the Toroni. But all three canvases were painted and Mosset, are completely lacking in sen-
Art is the illusion of the
marvellous. It is not etc.
Versailles by Mosset. sitivity. Humour, discomfort, anxiety, joy,
fountains `Toroni presents a Toroni, a Buren and a calm, serenity—every human feeling is absent.
Striptease Mosset. But all three canvases were painted This first point alone challenges our basic con-
Art is the illusion of escape.
It is not etc. by Toroni. cept of art. To reject sensitivity means aban-
Art is the illusion of nature.
Flowers `This demonstration adds nothing to the paint- doning personal problems. And abandoning
It is not etc. ings by Buren, Mosset and Toroni. It is an what I have called 'personal problems' results
No projection exhibition of three Burens, three Mossets and in a picture which is no longer a transformation
Art is entertainment, art is
false. Painting begins with three Toronis.' —by the artist—of reality into illusion.
Buren, Mosset, Parmentier Also in December 1967, Buren and Toroni Perhaps these attempts should be placed on a
and Toroni. held a joint exhibition at the Flaviana Gallery linguistic level, the search for a language which
After a three minute interval, the whole thing in Lugano. They carried their logic a stage would, for the first time, specifically belong to
began again, and continued throughout the further and entitled the show Buren or Toroni the plastic arts. There is no longer a question
exhibition. or Any One Else. 'Any one else' was invited to of a work of art being limited to a given space,
In December 1967, three of them—Buren, paint either of the pictures usually done by for example, where everything or nothing can
Mosset and Toroni—put on a new exhibition Buren or Toroni and to sign it with his own be put, but of a work conceived in itself with-
at the former J' Gallery in Paris. I should add name, appropriating the picture simply by out ever taking anything whatever (being,
here that these three had been painting the painting it. There is nothing to distinguish any object, idea) out of context. The result is a
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