Social Sculpture and Its Influence on the

Contemporary Art

• 1960s Beuys – Social Sculpture – in which society as a whole was to be regarded as one great work of art to which each person can contribute creatively…. He was motivated by a utopian belief in the power of universal human creativity and was confident in the potential for art to bring about revolutionary change.

• In 1973, Beuys wrote:• “…Only art is capable of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile social system

that continues to totter along the deathline: to dismantle in order to build ‘A SOCIAL ORGANISM AS A WORK OF ART’… EVERY HUMAN BEING IS AN ARTIST who – from his state of freedom – the position of freedom that he experiences at first-hand – learns to determine the other positions of the TOTAL ART WORK OF THE FUTURE SOCIAL ORDER.”

Joseph Beuys (German, 1921-1986), Infiltration homogen für Konzertflügel (Homogeneous Infiltration for Piano),1966, piano covered with felt and leather, 100 x 152 x 240 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.

(The piano become a metaphor for human communication. But in its present situation, the message would be silenced. Through this artwork, Beuys is telling us (through the title) that the piano is the same functional piano we have seen before, only under this felt (it is homogeneous). Communication for the piano is not

currently possible under the felt. If we look at the piano like it’s a person, it becomes easier to understand: when people look into themselves (infiltrate ourselves) we can begin to heal. The healing will release us from the things that restrict our voices and let our creativity and thoughts come into the world unmuffled. It is a

healing understood by his fellow Germans after World War 2. “Let's talk of a system that transforms all the social organisms into a work of art, in which the entire process of work is included... something in which the principle of production and consumption takes on a form of quality. It's a Gigantic project.”)

• Contemporary Art Practice incorporates and builds upon conceptual art of the 60s-70s is as broad as urban/public interventions, utopian proposals, "new genre" public art, social sculpture, project-based community practice, interactive media, participatory practice and street performance ('working with others', interactive activities, collective action). Example of works:

• Jens Haaning's work Travel Agency (1997), (Jens Haaning had a show at SFAI on 2008, Jan. For this project, Haaning extended his ongoing examination of the living and working conditions of immigrants in the West by importing scenes from their everyday reality into the space of the Walter and McBean Galleries. )

• Touch

• Relational Art from the 1990's to Now San Francisco Art Institute, October 18 December 14, 2002

• curated by Nicolas Bourriaud

• Prototype for A to Z Pit Bed (1995/2002), Andrea Zittel

• June - 2008International group exhibition in the frame of the project

• Artists: Christine Meisner, Mathias Poledna, Lisl Ponger, José Alejandro Restrepo - curated by Christian Kravagna

• The exhibition deals with the stories and manifestations of a collective imagination structured by the polarity of centre and periphery and which can be generally subsumed under the title »Eurocentrism«.

• 2007–2009 Crystal Palace, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles/ Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago/ 2009 New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York   

• curated by Russell Ferguson

• Poledna's work explores how meaning becomes attached to images and sounds; it creates a complex tension between a specific place, its cinematic appearance, and historical concepts circulating around it.

• New Museum - New York• http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/403/museum_as_hub_six_degrees• Museum as Hub: Six Degrees• In "Museum as Hub: Six Degrees" artists use the real estate of the New Museum as organizing

principle, departure point, vista, and classroom to imagine the changing relevance of the Museum and its environs. Expanding the concept of an exhibition, "Six Degrees" refers to the angle of the Bowery off New York City’s grid and begins with Night School, a monthly seminar series organized by Anton Vidokle that features artists, writers, and curators in conversation with the public over the course of the year. Works by Dave McKenzie, My Barbarian (Jade Gordon, Malik Gaines, and Alexandro Segade), Martha Rosler, Lisa Sigal, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, and Anton Vidokle continue to occupy and engage the neighborhood by employing nearby buildings as canvas, local artists as collaborators, and New Museum territory as a meeting place, recital hall, and laboratory.

• Organized by Eungie Joo, Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs.

• Thursday, September 11, 2008 | 7:30 PM• Night School Public Seminar 7: Paul Chan: Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: An Illustrated Lecture • In November 2007, Paul Chan collaborated with the Classical Theatre of Harlem and Creative Time to stage five fre

e site-specific performances of Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot in two New Orleans neighborhoods that had been destroyed by the f... more

• Friday, September 12, 2008 | 7:30 PM• Night School Public Seminar 7: Paul Chan: A Poet for President: Eileen Myles and Her Run for the White

House • In September 1991, legendary New York poet Eileen Myles launched her write-in Presidential campaign, running ag

ainst George Bush Sr. She writes, “[The President] functions as a grand employer who has a complaint box. Each of us may get our two cent... more

• Saturday, September 13, 2008 | 3:00 PM• Night School Public Seminar 7: Paul Chan: The Sade I Know: Screening and Lecture • Pornographer, philosopher, and revolutionary, the Marquis De Sade remains an indispensable figure in the history o

f post-Enlightenment Western thought. His books Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and the notorious The 120 Days of Sodom (written dur... More

• Thursday, September 25, 2008 | 7:30 PM• Night School Public Seminar 8: Rirkrit Tiravanija introduces the land with a screening of Phillippe Parreno’s

Boy from Mars • Initiated in 1998, the land is the merging of ideas by different artists to cultivate a place of and for social engagemen

t. The land is located near the village of Sanpatong, twenty minutes from the center of the provincial capital Chiang Mai. Due to... More

• Friday, September 26, 2008 | 7:30 PM• Night School Public Seminar 8: Nikolaus Hirsch, Neil Logan, Molly Nesbit, and Rirkrit Tiravanija • Rirkrit Tiravanija, Nikolaus Hirsch, Neil Logan, and Molly Nesbit discuss self-organization, alternative living, architect

ure, and utopia.Following the discussion, all are welcome to stay for a live-stream Web broadcast of the presidential debate.Nig... more

• Saturday, September 27, 2008 | 3:00 PM• Night School Public Seminar 8: Rirkrit Tiravanija • Night School is an artist's project by Anton Vidokle in the form of a temporary school. A yearlong program of monthly

seminars and workshops, Night School draws upon a group of local and international artists, writers, and theorists to conceptualize ... more

• Thursday, October 16, 2008 | 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM• All-day POWERSTITCH with Ginger Brooks Takahashi • Ginger Brooks Takahashi’s quilting forum or “POWERSTITCH” employs traditional craft to de-formalize the exhibiti

on space as productive community space. An ongoing project since 2004, an army of lovers cannot fail has been shown and worked on al... more

• Saturday, October 18, 2008 | 3:00 PM• Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Dave McKenzie, and Lisa Sigal in conversation with curator Eungie Joo • Curator Eungie Joo leads a conversation between artists Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Dave McKenzie, and Lisa Siga

l about their practices and work in the exhibition “Museum as Hub: Six Degrees.” The exhibition begins as a consideration of “neighborh... more

• Thursday, October 23, 2008 | 7:30 PM• Night School Public Seminar 9: Sleepwalking in a dialectical picture puzzle Natascha Sadr Haghighian with

Thomas Keenan and Avery Gordon • Day 140 minutes between the boardsAn introduction by Natascha Sadr HaghighianA series of blackboards are inst

alled in the auditorium. Objects sketched in chalk on the boards serve as coordinates for a forty-minute theoretical walk-through. The dr... More

• Friday, October 24, 2008 | 7:30 PM• Night School Public Seminar 9: Sleepwalking in a dialectical picture puzzle Natascha Sadr Haghighian with

Thomas Keenan and Avery Gordon • Day 2

40 minutes between the shelves, Part 1 A conversation with Thomas Keenan The corridors of a nearby store serve as the matrix for a conversation and critical reflection on presenting and representing as two different approaches to the politica... More

• Saturday, October 25, 2008 | 3:00 PM• Night School Public Seminar 9: Sleepwalking in a dialectical picture puzzle Natascha Sadr Haghighian with

Thomas Keenan and Avery Gordon • Day 3 40 minutes between the shelves, Part 2 A conversation with Avery Gordon The corridors of a nearby store serve

as the matrix for a conversation on subjugated knowledges and how research is related to one's ability to act. The apparitional st... more

• Thursday, November 6, 2008 | 7:30 PM• Artist talk: Martha Rosler and Anton Vidokle in conversation • Martha Rosler and Anton Vidokle talk about their practices and influences, artistic agency, art and politics, and the Bow

ery neighborhood. Rosler and Vidokle have collaborated and worked on many projects over the years, including Vidokle’s exhibiti... More

• Sunday, November 9, 2008 | 4:00 PM• Artist’s Talk: Malik Gaines • Join Malik Gaines in a gallery talk about My Barbarian’s residency project at the New Museum and their subsequent tw

o-channel video work Post-Living Ante-Action Theater (PoLAAT): Post-Paradise, Sorry Again now on view in the exhibition Museum as Hu... more

• Thursday, November 13, 2008 | 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM• Full Moon POWERSTITCH with Ginger Brooks Takahashi • Ginger Brooks Takahashi’s quilting forum or “POWERSTITCH” employs traditional craft to de-formalize the

exhibition space as productive community space. An ongoing project since 2004, an army of lovers cannot fail, has been shown and worked on a... more

• Thursday, November 20, 2008 | 7:30 PM• It’s Educational! Art Research Reading Group • Readings + Meetings + Screenings

Exploring Matters of Art Schooling and ResearchJoin Museum as Hub Fellow Sabrina Locks for an introduction to the Art Research Reading Group, including an overview of reading material and conversation about the con... more

• Thursday, December 4, 2008 | 7:30 PM• Night School Public Seminar 10: Walid Raad and Jalal Toufic, The Withdrawal of Tradition Past a

Surpassing Disaster • Led by Walid Raad and Jalal Toufic, this seminar series explores Toufic’s concept of “the withdrawal of tradition

past a surpassing disaster,” which he first advanced in his books Over-Sensitivity (1996) and then elaborated further in Forthcomi...... More

• Friday, December 5, 2008 | 3:00 PM• Night School Public Seminar 10: Walid Raad and Jalal Toufic, The Withdrawal of Tradition Past a

Surpassing Disaster • Please note time change to accommodate live webcast with Jalal Toufic in Istanbul Days 2 and 3 are

dedicated to an introduction by Jalal Toufic of his concept of "the withdrawal of tradition past a surpassing disaster." Toufic speaks about ... More

• Saturday, December 6, 2008 | 3:00 PM• Night School Public Seminar 10: Walid Raad and Jalal Toufic • Night School is an artist's project by Anton Vidokle in the form of a temporary school. A yearlong program of monthly

seminars and workshops, Night School draws upon a group of local and international artists, writers, and theorists to conceptualize ... more

• Thursday, December 11, 2008 | 7:30 PM• It’s Educational! Art Research Reading Group • Readings + Meetings + Screenings

Exploring Matters of Art Schooling and ResearchReading Group texts and conversations reflect on “schooling” impetuses in recent art and current educational trends in art practices and institutions with particul... more

• Saturday, December 20, 2008 | 3:00 PM• Differential Criteria: Interactive Presentation and Conversation with Niko Vicario • This interactive presentation finds its locus at the intersection of 1960s art education publishing and interdisciplinary

art production at MIT (under the supervision of Gyorgy Kepes from 1945–72), that enunciated the notion of "differential c... more

• Saturday, January 10, 2009 | 3:00 PM• It’s Educational! Art Research Reading Group • Readings + Meetings + Screenings

Exploring Matters of Art Schooling and ResearchReading Group texts and conversations reflect on “schooling” impetuses in recent art and current educational trends in art practices and institutions with particul... more