Do It
Show Runs:
June 4 - August 26, 2001
do it began in 1993 with a discussion among Christian Boltanski, Bertrand Lavier, and Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Since the early 1970s, the artists had been interested in various forms of instructional procedures, and one evening spoke of the instructions contained within their own work. Interested in the notion of interpretation as an artistic principle, they considered instructions for their installations as analogous to musical scores which, like an opera or symphony, go through countless realizations as others interpret them. From this discussion arose the idea of an exhibition of do-it-yourself descriptions or instructions which, until a venue is found, exist in a static condition. Like a musical score, everything is there but the sound.
Unlike a conventional exhibition of works, do it is created anew each time it is offered. Thirty international artists have provided written instructions to be interpreted by local community members, artists, and museum personnel. The resulting works—always different, always unique, always local—make up the resulting public presentation of do it.
This was Soo Visual Arts Center's inaugural exhibition.
Artist: Christian Boltanski, Critical Art Emsemble, Jimmie Durham, Maria Eichhorn, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Paul-Armand Gette, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Joseph Grigely, Shere Hite, Ilya Kobakov, Mike Kelley, Alison Knowles, Siobhan Liddell, Chris Marker, Yoko Ono, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini, Andreas Solimski, Bruce Sterling, Rikrit Tiravanija and Lawrence Weiner
