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Live In Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form

Live In Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form was an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern curated by the Swiss curator, Harald Szeemann, in 1969.[1] The show is considered a groundbreaking landmark for Postminimalist and Arte Povera work which, according to the New York Times, was "arguably the most famous exhibition of new art of the postwar era."[2][3]

Live In Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form
Artists installing their work in the exhibition, Live In Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form, at the Kunsthalle Bern, 1969
DateMarch 22 – April 27, 1969 (1969-03-22 – 1969-04-27)
VenueKunsthalle Bern
LocationBern, Switzerland
Typeart exhibition
ThemePostminimal art, Process art, Arte Povera
Organised byHarald Szeemann

The exhibition redefined the role of the curator in relation to artists – as a partnership.[3] The exhibition included 127 works by 69 artists (three of whom were women) from Western Europe and the United States. The artists constructed their works on site within the gallery spaces of the Kunsthalle. Many of their works were process-oriented. A selection of artists from the show include Eva Hesse, Gary Kuehn, Robert Smithson, Alighiero Boetti, Joseph Beuys, Bruce Naumann, Hanne Darboven, Mario Merz, Hans Haacke among others.[4][3] The exhibition enabled Szeemann to redefine his role as an independent curator working outside of the constraints of an institution.[5][6]

Exhibition catalog

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The Kunsthalle produced a catalog, When Attitudes Become Form: Works-Concepts-Processes-Situations-Information, with a unique die-cut alphabetically tabbed index bound with hardware-fittings for the individual artists. In Notes on the New, an essay in the exhibition catalog, Scott Burton writes: "Art has been veritably invaded by life, if life means flux, change, chance, time, unpredictability." The exhibition catalog also contained writings by Grégoire Müller, Tommaso Trini and Szeemann himself.[7]

Legacy

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In 2003, the Walker Art Center mounted an exhibition curated by Philippe Vergne, Douglas Fogle and Olukemi Ilesanmi titled, How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age. The curators "trace the genealogy" of their exhibit to the 1969 show by Szeeman, as they saw that exhibition as a model for a new form of international exhibitions where the curator becomes a co-participatory "author" of the process of art-making within site specific contexts. The show at the Walker represented a more globally diverse range of practitioners than the show in Bern, and included more women. The show catalog was also bound with hardware fittings.[8]

In 2013, Germano Celant, who had met with Szeemann at the time of the original exhibition and even did a brief oral presentation during the opening night in Bern, recreated the show in its entirety. The exhibition was presented at the Fondazione Prada in Ca’ Corner della Regina, Venice, Italy during the opening week of the Venice Biennale.[9] Celant chose to co-organize the exhibition together with Rem Koolhaas, who helped recreating the original setting in Bern, and artist and photographer Thomas Demand.[10][11][12]

References

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  1. ^ "When Attitudes Become Form (Works, Concepts, Processes, Situations, Information)". Kunsthalle Bern. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  2. ^ Smith, Roberta (25 February 2005). "Harald Szeemann, 71, Curator of Groundbreaking Shows, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Wolfe, Shira. "The Shows That Made Contemporary Art History: Live in Your Head. When Attitudes Become Form". ARTLAND Magazine. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  4. ^ Gary Kuehn: Practitioner's Delight. Mousse Publishing. 2019. ISBN 978-8867493494.
  5. ^ "The show that made Harald Szeemann a star". Phaidon. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  6. ^ "Bad Attitudes: Harald Szeemann's Landmark Exhibition Was a Scandal in Its Day". Observer. 2013-06-01. Retrieved 2019-01-25.
  7. ^ Szeemann, Harald. Live In Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form: Works-Concepts-Processes-Situations_Information. Switzerland: Kunsthalle Bern.
  8. ^ Vergne, Philippe (2003). How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center.
  9. ^ Cotter, Holland (13 August 2013). "Art's Future Meets Its Past". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  10. ^ "When Attitudes Become Form: Bern 1969/Venice 2013". Fondazione Prada. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  11. ^ Larios, Pablo (7 September 2013). "When Attitudes Become Form". Frieze. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  12. ^ Rapolt, Mark. "When Attitudes Become Form: Bern 1969/Venice 2013, Fondazione Prada, Venice". Art Review. Retrieved 4 December 2021.

Further reading

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