Do It: The Compendium - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1938922018 ISBN 13: 9781938922015

Publisher: Independent Curators International/D.A.P., 2013

Synopsis

Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Do It began in Paris in 1993 as a conversation between the artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier and Obrist himself, who was experimenting with how exhibition formats could be rendered more flexible and open-ended. The discussion led to the question of whether a show could take “scores” or written instructions by artists as a point of departure, which could be interpreted anew each time they were enacted. To test the idea, Obrist invited 13 artists to send instructions, which were then translated into nine different languages and circulated internationally as a book. Within two years, Do It exhibitions were being created all over the world by realizing the artists’ instructions. With every version of the exhibition new instructions were added, so that today more than 300 artists have contributed to the project. Constantly evolving and morphing into different versions of itself, Do It has grown to encompass “Do It (Museum),” “Do It (Home),” “Do It (TV),” “Do It (Seminar)” as well as some “Anti-Do Its”, a “Philosophy Do It” and, most recently, a “UNESCO Children’s Do It.” Nearly 20 years after the initial conversation took place, Do It has been featured in at least 50 different locations worldwide. To mark the twentieth anniversary of this landmark project, this new publication presents the history of this ambitious enterprise and gives new impetus to its future. It includes an archive of artists’ instructions, essays contextualizing Do It, documentation from the history of the exhibition and instructions by 200 artists from all over the world selected by Obrist, among them Carl Andre, Jimmie Durham, Dan Graham, Yoko Ono, Christian Marclay and Rosemarie Trockel, including 60 new instructions from Matias Faldbakken, Theaster Gates, Sarah Lucas, David Lynch, Rivane Neuenschwander and Ai Weiwei, among many others.

About this title

About the Author

Marina Abramovic pioneered the use of performance as a visual art form. The body has always been both her subject and medium; exploring the physical and mental limits of her being, she has withstood pain, exhaustion and danger in the quest for transformation. Her career began in Belgrade during the early 1970s, and her work has since appeared at The Museum of Modern Art, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and The New Museum in New York; the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and many others. She has won a Bessie, as the New York Dance and Performance Award is called, and the Venice Biennale's Lion D'Or.

Review

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Obrist's ongoing curatorial experiment, this anthology collects 250 "scores"―written instructions for the production of an artwork―from the artists invited to participate in the 50 iterations of the globally traveling "do it" exhibition to date. (Editors Art in America)

Obrist recruited more than 60 artists (icluding Ai Weiwei and David Lynch) to write instructionsfor creating all manner of works, which have been interpreted by others and put on display alongside those directions. (Jonathan Aprea Time Out Magazine)

Edition details

• Publisher: Independent Curators International/D.A.P.
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1938922018
• ISBN 13: 9781938922015
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448
• Editor: Obrist Hans Ulrich