Page 48 - Studio International - September October 1975

Jannis Kounellis Bruce Nauman
Untitled 1974 Acoustic Piece for Konrad Fischer 1970
Courtesy Christian Stein, Turin

carried out by defining and detailing, in (windows, doors), the way in which concerned with the inter-relationships
a rational manner, all concrete entities surfaces are divided up (in squares, between objects, images, kinetic effects,
with the spatial placing of a work of rectangles or circles), or else the factual characteristics and given space.
art (sculpture and painting): volume, volumetric compactness and the The art-architecture dialectic has to date
colour, light, surface support, material internal 'external dialectic. LeWitt on the been built upon a multiplicity of
and operative procedure. And, since the other hand seems to focus his attention attitudes which, however, have not
study of environmental structures takes on the geometric diversity of the surfaces regarded the environment as the 'place
place simultaneously with the basic or of the lines related to the surfaces. of a person,' at any rate at the planning
arrangement of artistic elements, the His walls have either white or coloured stage. And yet there is a dialectical
`definition' and 'listing' of these concrete backgrounds and are simple relationship between environmental space
entities leads to an awareness of a series `descriptions' of a geometric field, and and human presence. Naturally, in the
of 'environments' which are they therefore result in the creation of a examples quoted here, this relationship
fundamentally non-iconic. linear structure. exists between artistically 'totalized'
The spatial characteristics of an When mobile points are used, the artist space and the exhibition visitor; in other
environment are not in fact concerned allows himself to 'move' the points in words it 'happens' after the environment
with problems of content or order to create a 'field within a field.' has been constructed. There is therefore
composition of an individual and In other words he manipulates the the problem of timing: space affected by
historical nature. It has to be looked at environment in order to construct the person, or vice versa. If it is possible
in the light of its 'behaviour,' which can inside it a spatial entity which is for them to affect each other
be understood through the standard units autonomous, though still tied to the simultaneously, then this must be
(ceiling, floor, walls and dimensions) given field. This new space obviously carefully considered and the degree of
of which it is formed. Since the adds new characteristics to the given identity between spatial and human
environment consists of a group of two; space and may result from the colouring behaviour must be assessed. In order to
three-dimensional relationships, it is of wall surfaces, the arrangement of do this, either the human presence
possible to identify it using either fixed lighting and walls along a passageway, within the space must be dispersed, or
or mobile points. If fixed points are used, as in the case of the walls of colour which the person must be spatially
the structure is formed by taking into Palermo designed in 1973 at the `objectualized.' The close link which
account intersections or segments of Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Flavin's light binds them together makes it possible to
each space-environment. In other words, corridor for the Walker Art Center speak of a 'life space' or a `spatialized
the given space is divided and sub- in Minneapolis and Serra's Circuit at life,' since the space is defined by the
divided according to its two 'three- Documenta V. Also belonging to this life-activity which is 'projected' in it,
dimensional characteristics. These category are Judd's wall works, and and because life is 'fixed' in space.
govern the aesthetic arrangement, as can Morris' recent labyrinths which have Examples of the first type are the
be seen in the work of Buren and complex references to real facts or events. environmental works of Acconci and
LeWitt from 1968 onwards. They carry (e) Life Space. Up to now the Gilbert & George; an example of the
out their studies in situ. Under the achievement of aesthetic `totalization' second type is that of Kounellis. There
`pressure' of the particular situation, has been through the objective are two categories of evidence displayed,
Buren defines one aspect of it, in order composition or splitting up of an which are clearly distinct. In Acconci's
to make it intelligible. This aspect might environment. The 'concrete fact' is at the Voices for a Second Sight, designed in
be, within the given field, the regular basis of both spatial knowledge and 1974 for the Museum of Modern Art in
pattern made by certain elements spatial occupation. Every artist is New York, and Gilbert & George's