Installation Art between Image and Stage

Book excerpt: Installationskunsten har gået sin sejrsgang verden over, og er her i det 21. århundrede en både vel- og anerkendt bestanddel af samtidskunsten. Med påvirkning fra og udveksling mellem billedkunst på den ene side og performanceteater på den anden befinder installationskunst sig – som bogens titel viser – netop i feltet mellem billede og scene. I Installation Art: Between Image and Stage undersøger Anne Ring Petersen grundstenene for en af nutidens mest udbredte kunstformer. Installationer er – ligesom skulpturer – tredimensionelle formationer eller billeddannelser, men i modsætning til skulpturen er installationen karakteriseret ved at være formet af rum eller rumlige scenografier, som skaber betydning og sanseoplevelser gennem sit billedsprog. Som resultat af dette er installationer ofte stort anlagte kunstværker, som beskueren kan gå ind i, og de lever dermed til fulde op til nutidens krav om spektakulære, æstetisk iscenesatte events og kulturoplevelser, der taler til sanserne. Gennem grundige analyser af værker af kunstnere som Bruce Nauman, Olafur Eliasson, Jeppe Hein, Mona Hatoum, Pipilotti Rist og Ilya Kabakov som bagtæppe søges der i denne bog svar på, hvad en installation egentlig er, hvilke virkemidler den bruger, hvordan installationskunstens opståen kan forklares i et kulturhistorisk perspektiv og meget mere. Også installationskunstens rumlige, tidsmæssige og diskursive aspekter såvel som dens receptionsæstetik, der sættes ind i en overordnet kunst- og kulturhistorisk ramme, undersøges. Installation Art: Between Image and Stage er et nyttigt værk for alle, der ønsker at forstå denne mangefacetterede kunstforms konceptuelle fundament. Anne Ring Petersen, dr.phil., er lektor ved Institut for Kunst og Kulturvidenskab, Københavns Universitet. Har i 2009 udgivetInstallationskunsten mellem billede og scene og er redaktør af Contemporary Painting in Context (2010). Despite its large and growing popularity — to say nothing of its near- ubiquity in the world’s art scenes and international exhibitions of contemporary art — installation art remains a form whose artistic vocabulary and conceptual basis have rarely been subjected to thorough critical examination. In Installation Art: Between Image and Stage, Anne Ring Petersen aims to change that. She begins by exploring how installation art developed into an interdisciplinary genre in the 1960s, and how its intertwining of the visual and the performative has acted as a catalyst for the generation of new artistic phenomena. She investigates how it became one of today's most widely used art forms, increasingly expanding into consumer, popular and urban cultures, where installation's often spectacular appearance ensures that it meets contemporary demands for sense-provoking and immersive cultural experiences. The main trajectory of the book is directed by a movement aimed at addressing a series of basic questions that get at the heart of what installation art is and how it is defined: How does installation structure time, space and representation? How does it address and engage its viewers? And how does it draw in the surrounding world to become part of the work? Featuring the work of such well-known artists as Bruce Nauman, Pipilotti Rist, Ilya Kabakov and many others, this book breaks crucial new ground in understanding the conceptual underpinnings of this multifacious art form. Anne Ring Petersen is associate professor in the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen and the editor of Contemporary Painting in Context.