Overview

Tendencies in art practice, curatorial strategy, institutional and pedagogical approaches recently show a prevailing paradigm shift in focus from an object dependent model into a discursive one. Rather than emphasising commodity, the privilege is placed on the social generative process, on understanding fluctuating contexts and meanings, on audience, communication and distribution, on the diachronic and momentary evolutions of the experiences we create. This transformation and dematerialisation of art’s reception has made an impact on artistic production. Along with discussing historical precedence, Berbic will be presenting his projects that investigate such practice. The collaborative project by Ministry of Culture takes the 1961 Piero Manzoni work Socle du Monde as a starting point for inquiry into the role of public sculpture and it’s ability to reach the public. In this work, the object "Shifting Base " was transported to its ultimate destination, Abu Dhabi’s Rub’ al Khali sand sea, where it was set adrift in the shifting sands of the Empty Quarter. A catalogue constitutes the work’s sole form, allowing it to become a site-less, traveling exhibition.