Page 66 - Studio International - September October 1975

depths where no one will be able to reach perception of space reopened a basic way 'to make space distinct' (to define
me and understand me, living among philosophical question. Remember : you space in particular) is only there to throw
abstract connections more frequently are inside an enclosed space with equal one back on the interpretation of the
expressed by inner monologues than by height and width. Do your eyes instruct `nature of space' itself. As opposed to the
direct realities ? Shall architecture, which you about the cube, merely by noticing it, previously described Pyramid of Reason,
started with the building of Tombs return without giving any additional the dark corners of experience are not
to the Tomb, to the eternal silence of interpretation ? No. You don't really see unlike a labyrinth where all sensations, all
finally transcended history ? Shall the cube. You may see a corner, or a side, feelings are enhanced, but where no
architecture perform at the service of or the ceiling, but never all defining overview is present to provide a clue
illusory functions and build virtual surfaces at the same time. You touch a about where to get out.30 Occasional
spaces ? My voyage into the abstract wall, you hear an echo. But how do you consciousness is of little help, for
realm of language, into the relate all these perceptions to one single perception in the Labyrinth presupposes
dematerialized world of concepts, meant object ? Is it through an operation of immediacy. Unlike Hegel's classical
the removal of architecture from its reason ? 21, 22 distinction between the moment of
intricate and convoluted element : space. perception and the moment of
Removal from the exhilarating differences 13. This operation of reason, which experience (when one's consciousness
between the apse and the nave at Ely precedes the perception of the cube as a makes a new object out of a perceived
Cathedral, between Salisbury Plain and cube, was mirrored by the approach of one), the metaphorical Labyrinth
Stonehenge, between the Street and my concept-performance artists. While your implies that the first moment of
Living Room. Space is real, for it seems eyes were giving instructions about perception carries the experience itself.
to affect my senses long before my reason. successive parts of the cube, allowing It is hardly surprising therefore that
The materiality of my body both you to form the concept of cube, the there may be no way out of the
coincides and struggles with the artist was giving instructions about the Labyrinth. Denis Hollier, in his book on
materiality of the space. My body carries concept of cube, stimulating your senses Georges Bataille," points out that from
in itself spatial properties and spatial through the intermediary of reason. This Bacon to Leibniz the Labyrinth was
determination: up, down, right, left, reversal, this mirror image was linked with the desire to get out, and
symmetry, dissymmetry. It hears as important, for the interplay between the science was seen as the means to find an
much as it sees. Unfolding against the new perception of 'performance' space exit. Rejecting such an interpretation,
projections of reason, against the and the rational means at the origin of the Bataille suggested that its only effect was
Absolute Truth, against the Pyramid, piece was typically one aspect of the to transform the Labyrinth into a banal
here is the Sensory Space, the Labyrinth, architectural process : the mechanics of prison. The traditional meaning of the
the Hole. Dislocated and dissociated by perception of a distinct space, that is the metaphor was reversed: one never knows
language or culture or economy into the complete space of the performance, with whether one is inside or not, since one
specialized ghettos of sex and mind, Soho the movements, the thoughts, the cannot grasp it in one look. Just as
and Bloomsbury, 42nd Avenue and West received instructions of the actors, as well language gives us words that encircle us
40th Street, here is where my body tries as the social and physical context in but that we use in order to break their
to rediscover its lost unity, its energies which they performed. But the most surround, the Labyrinth of experience
and impulses, its rhythms and its interesting part of such performance was was full of openings that did not tell
the underlying discussion on the 'nature whether they opened towards its outside
flux .18, 19
of space' in general, as opposed to the or its inside.
12. This purely sensory approach shaping and perception of distinct spaces
has been a recurrent theme in this in particular. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 PART 3:
century's understanding and It is in recent works that the recurring
appreciation of space. It is not necessary etymological distinction appears at its The Pyramid
to expand at length on the precedents strongest. Reduced to the cold simplicity and the Labyrinth
witnessed by 20th-century architecture. of six planes that define the boundaries
Suffice to say that current conversation of a more or less regular cube, the series The Paradox of Architecture
seems to fluctuate between (a) the 1910 of spaces designed by Nauman, Wheeler,
German aesthetic overtones of the Irwin or Asher do not play with 15. To single out particular areas of
Raumempfindung theory, whereby space elaborate spatial articulations. 28, 29 concern, such as the rational play of
is to be 'felt' as something affecting the Their emphasis is elsewhere. By language as opposed to the experience of
inner nature of man by a symbolic restricting visual and physical senses, would be a tedious game if it were
Einfühlung, and (b) one that echoes perception to the faintest of all to lead to a naive confrontation between
Schlemmer's work at the Bauhaus, stimulations, they turn the expected the mind and the body. The
whereby space was not only the medium experience of the space into something architectural avant-garde has fought often
of experience but also the materialisation altogether different. The almost totally enough over alternatives which appeared
of theory. For example, the emphasis removed sensory definition inevitably as opposites — structure and chaos,
given to movement saw in dance the throws the viewer back on himself. ornament and purity, permanence and
`elemental means for the realization of In 'deprived space', as Germano Celant change, reason and intuition. And often
space-creative impulses', for dance could puts it in a recent article, the enough it has been shown that such
articulate and order space. The parallel `participant' can only find himself as the alternatives were in fact complementary:
made between the dancer's movements subject, only aware of his own fantasies our analysis of a dematerialization of
and the more traditional means of and pulsations, only able to react to the architecture in its ontological form (the
defining and articulating space, such as low density signals of his own body. The Pyramid) and of a sensual experience
walls or columns, is important .When materiality of the body coincides with (the Labyrinth) is no different. But if the
Trisha Brown and Simone Forti the materiality of the space. By a series of existence of such an equation does not
reintroduced this spatial discussion in the exclusions that become significant only in raise doubts over its complementarity,
mid-sixties, the relationship between opposition to the remote exterior space it certainly raises questions about the
theory and practice, reason and and general social context, the subject way such equations can go beyond the
perception had to take another turn, and only 'experiences his own experience.' vicious circle of terms that speak only of
the concept of theoretical praxis could themselves.
not be simply indicative. As Roselee 14. Whether such spaces might be The answer may lie in the context in
Goldberg has pointed out, there was no seen as faintly reminiscent of the which such equation takes place. A
way in space to follow the Art-Language behaviourist spaces at the beginning of common accusation of analyses or even
practice. If it could be argued that the the century, where reactions were works that concentrate on the specific
discourse about art was art and thus be hopefully triggered, or as the new echo of nature of architecture is that they are
exhibited as such, the theoretical the Einfüfilung theory, now cleaned up `parallel', that is, they fold and unfold
discourse about space certainly was not from its moral and aesthetic overtones, is in some Panglossian world where social
space. 20 of little theoretical importance. What and economic forces are conveniently
The attempt to trigger a new matters is their double content : for their absent. Not affecting the determining

140