PHILADELPHIA, PA .- The Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design announced the first Philadelphia presentation of do it, the world’s longest running exhibition, and the only exhibition based entirely upon artist instructions. The exhibition is on view September 13 – December 6, 2014.
What would happen if an exhibition never stopped? This is precisely what French artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier, and Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, asked themselves in a Paris café in 1993. To test the idea, they invited twelve artists to propose artworks based on written “scores” or instructions that can be openly interpreted every time they are presented. The instructions were then translated into nine different languages and circulated internationally as a book.
Since then, hundreds of artists have been invited to submit instructions, and versions of do it have been presented in over fifty venues worldwide, giving new meaning to the concept of the “exhibition in progress.” Each do it exhibition is uniquely site-specific because it engages the local community in a dialogue that responds to a set of instructions; no two iterations of the same instructions are ever identical.
For the do it presentation at The Galleries at Moore, over seventy published artist instructions result in objects, installations and performances by Philadelphia-based artists, performers, curators and the public, that range from the explicitly sculptural to the performative, the poetic to the absurd.
For example, the Michelangelo Pistoletto instruction “Sculpture for Strolling” has been interpreted by students in Moore’s Summer Art & Design Institute and Young Artists Workshop programs. The giant newspaper ball they constructed was taken out for a stroll near the Swann Foundation in Logan Square on August 8, 2014. Similarly, an instruction by Fischli & Weiss was interpreted vis-à-vis the PECO Crown Lights on September 13 – 15, 2014 to promote the show.
According to Kaytie Johnson, Rochelle F. Levy Director and Chief Curator, “staging do it creates new opportunities for involvement by – and with – local communities. The generative and democratic nature of the project enables The Galleries to continue exploring ways to broaden access and participation in contemporary art, which is central to our mission. I think the public will enjoy the DIY sensibility of the show, especially since it demystifies the presence and importance of original artwork. We’re thrilled to be the first venue in Philadelphia to invite the public to ‘do it.’”
A publication featuring new instructions created by Philadelphia-based artists accompanies the exhibition.
Instructions by the following artists will be interpreted during The Galleries’ presentation of do it: Etel Adnan, Sophia Al Maria, Uri Aran, Cory Arcangel, Nairy Baghramian, Jérôme Bel, Mel Bochner, Christian Boltanski, Mircea Cantor, Jay Chung, Meg Cranston, Critical Art Ensemble, Tacita Dean, Diller + Scofidio, Trisha Donnelly, Elmgreen & Dragset, Tracey Emin, Cao Fei, Fischli & Weiss, Hreinn Fridfinnsson, Paul-Armand Gette, Gilbert & George, Simryn Gill, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Konstantin Grcic, Marie-Ange Guilleminot, Shilpa Gupta, Richard Hamilton, Fabrice Hybert, Joan Jonas, Ilya Kabakov, Mike Kelley, Ben Kinmont, Alison Knowles, Július Koller, Koo Jeong-A, Suzanne Lacy, Adriana Lara, Sol LeWitt, Erik van Lieshout, Lucy R. Lippard, Aníbal López, David Lynch, Christian Marclay, Jonas Mekas, Bruce Nauman, Rivane Neuenschwander, Albert Oehlen, Yoko Ono, Clifford Owens, Lygia Pape, Cesare Pietroiusti, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Marjetica Potrč, Raqs Media Collective, Tobias Rehberger, Claude Rutault, Peter Saville, Tino Sehgal, Hassan Sharif, Jim Shaw, Shimabuku, Sturtevant, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Yasunao Tone, Ryan Trecartin, Agnes Varda, Hannah Weinberger and Erwin Wurm.
do it is a traveling exhibition conceived and curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, and organized by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York.
