The social space of contemporary art and the works in situ in periodic exhibitions: Daniel Buren's indications

Abstract

It is increasingly common for works presented in periodic exhibitions to be carried out on demand and produced in the place of their exhibition. This article proposes a reflection on the structure of these exhibition sites and their consequences for the work presented there. For this, I take as a historical reference the concept of work in situ, developed by Daniel Buren and the result of his works presented at documenta in 1972 and at the São Paulo Biennale, in the 1983 and 1985 editions. The result of this process points to the centrality of the figure of the curator as responsible for a new type of artwork: the exhibition. This reconfiguration of the social space of art, in turn, points to a structural change in the art system, marked by the acceleration of time and fragmentation of exhibition spaces, a phenomenon frequently associated with the expression “biennialization” of contemporary art.