How To Do Art With Words
Conceptual practices are at the root of much of contemporary art. Since their inception in the 60s, an interest in prioritising concept over form or technical expertise has led many artists to delve into these practices and to expand them to the present day. Today there is a growing interest in them which is visible both in the work of new generations of artists and in the publications and programmes of museums and art centres. These practices currently tend to be called post-conceptual because they present some differences with the conceptual art of the 60s of the last century. It is therefore appropriate to examine its present reality within MUSAC鈥檚 collection through the exhibition C贸mo hacer arte con palabras, whose title is inspired by the well-known talk of the same name How to do Art with Words given by John Langshaw Austin in 1955.
As a result of conceptual practices鈥� prioritisation of the idea or the concept over the form, the image or the materialization of the work, it is the processual, the immaterial, the ephemeral or the interactive aspects that determine that we find performance as a live practice, recording and documentation media such as photography and video, or the use of different linguistic strategies 鈥攂oth in its dimension as sound and as a sign鈥� at the basis of conceptual and post-conceptual art.
Words, texts, sentences, messages, dialogues, enunciations, proclamations and manifestos have been a widely used resource in contemporary projects and productions, often characterised by a non-conforming attitude vis-脿-vis the status quo and by a will to transform the artistic and social establishments. Indeed, many of them try to integrate artistic activity in the wider context of sociopolitical, ecological and intellectual concerns. That is the reason why, initially, a large part of conceptual practices were against the production of works aimed to operate for profit in the market.
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Conceptual practices are at the root of much of contemporary art. Since their inception in the 60s, an interest in prioritising concept over form or technical expertise has led many artists to delve into these practices and to expand them to the present day. Today there is a growing interest in them which is visible both in the work of new generations of artists and in the publications and programmes of museums and art centres. These practices currently tend to be called post-conceptual because they present some differences with the conceptual art of the 60s of the last century. It is therefore appropriate to examine its present reality within MUSAC鈥檚 collection through the exhibition C贸mo hacer arte con palabras, whose title is inspired by the well-known talk of the same name How to do Art with Words given by John Langshaw Austin in 1955.
As a result of conceptual practices鈥� prioritisation of the idea or the concept over the form, the image or the materialization of the work, it is the processual, the immaterial, the ephemeral or the interactive aspects that determine that we find performance as a live practice, recording and documentation media such as photography and video, or the use of different linguistic strategies 鈥攂oth in its dimension as sound and as a sign鈥� at the basis of conceptual and post-conceptual art.
Words, texts, sentences, messages, dialogues, enunciations, proclamations and manifestos have been a widely used resource in contemporary projects and productions, often characterised by a non-conforming attitude vis-脿-vis the status quo and by a will to transform the artistic and social establishments. Indeed, many of them try to integrate artistic activity in the wider context of sociopolitical, ecological and intellectual concerns. That is the reason why, initially, a large part of conceptual practices were against the production of works aimed to operate for profit in the market.
