Sociological art
Encyclopedia
Sociological Art is an artistic movement and approach to aesthetics
created by Fred Forest
, Hervé Fischer and Jean-Paul Thénot in 1974.
and professor Jacques Monod
of Jussieu University.
With these actions, he dismissed the traditional artistic media of drawing, painting and sculpture, favouring the use of communication technologies in impoverished neighbourhoods (1967), video (1967) as well as printed and audiovisual press mechanisms. Notably, in 1972 at the occasion of the Salon titled “Comparison” at the “Grand Palais” in Paris, he openly argued with its official cultural institutions in denouncing their alleged heinous exploitation of market economics and political maneuvering. In June 1973 he organized a number of experiments in video exchange amidst communities of retirees in the south of France, an action of which philosopher Vilem Flusser
and sociologist Philippe Buteaud were tributaries.
In October 1973 at the occasion of the XII Bienal de São Paulo
, http://www.webnetmuseum.org/html/en/expo-retr-fredforest/actions/08_en.htm#text he effectuated a series of political provocations calling into question the established military dictatorship. In effect, he invited the Biennale’s artists to overstep the official framework of the event to extend their expression into the very streets of Brazil. As a result of the concrete manifestation of this project, a procession in which artistic collaborators cum demonstrators took to the main streets of São Paulo bearing white placards, he was arrested and taken to the Political Police Headquarters, a retaliation that generated international media attention effectively achieving the artist’s intended artistic-political goal. Forest formalized this now clear trajectory upon returning from this experience in May 1974, Forest organized an exhibition bearing the epiteth “sociological art” at the Galerie German in Paris.
and together they gathered a number of artists together to begin a movement engaged with critical and sociological realities. The meetings brought together artists such as Gina Pane
, Bertand Lavier, Thierry Agullo
, Joan Rabsacal, Jocelyne Hervé, Hervé Fischer, Jean-Paul Thenot as well as art critics François Pluchart
and Bernard Teyssedre.
On the 10th of October 1974, the Sociological Art Collective was officially declared with the publication in newspaper Le Monde of its first manifesto, signed by Hervé Fischer, Fred Forest and Jean-Paul Thénot. From this date onwards, these artists would alternate between practices claiming this lineage and their own personal practices. Concretely speaking, the collective published a number of texts, organized and effectuated a series of projects, and participated in colloquia and exhibitions.
Sociological Art is a praxis that criticizes all and any forms of alienation by using art as its platform and technology and critical methodology as its levers. With the development of post-1945 expansionism and globalisation, artistic concepts had to adapt. Sociological Art holds that the recasting of the function, methods, tools, materials and aims of artists was inevitable at a period of such social upheaval.
It proposed to consider art in terms of interaction, animation and the creation of structures of exchange, provocation and disruption of conventional social behaviours with a view to denouncing all and any forms of conditioning. In a classic move of Détournement
often associated with the Situationists, Sociological Art aimed to draw attention to the channels of power and communication it was aiming to undermine.
It called upon derision, simulacrum and humorous cum critical ellipses in order to explode or alter a certain reality structured by the social codes of the time. Sociological Art attempted to establish the modalities required for participative and discursive communication between artists and the public. This stance was in strict opposition with traditional artistic and cultural dogmas in terms of media, intention, method, aim, linguistic register, location and audience.
As summarized by Fred Forest: The practical aim of Sociological Art is to provide the necessary conditions of existence for various devices that frame a given efficient and effective questioning or investigation, thereby establishing the optimal conditions for a situation of intersubjectivity
.
Steeped in the theories of Existentialism
and Situationism and the political realities of the time, Sociological Art was a politically engaged response to an art world that was perceived as being out of touch both with the technologies and the society of its time.
and was further adapted and theorized in his subsequent theory of Communication aesthetics
. Though relatively unknown today, it is thoroughly emblematic of the historical upheavals after the second world war in France and Europe generally. It is also clear that Sociological Art foresaw the need for communicational art long before Nicolas Bourriaud
’s 1992 theory of Relational Aesthetics.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
created by Fred Forest
Fred Forest
Fred Forest is a French new media artist making use of video, photography, the printed press, mail, radio, television, telephone, telematics, and the internet in a wide range of installations, performances, and public interventions that explore both the ramifications and potential of media space...
, Hervé Fischer and Jean-Paul Thénot in 1974.
From 1967 to 1974
As of 1967 Fred Forest began a series of actions that would foreground the Sociological Art movement. A decade prior to the formal constitution of the “Sociological Art Collective” he held a number of public events in the context of the May 1968 protests in France at the Place d’Aligre in Paris, at debates at the Sorbonne and at the Théâtre de l’Odéon. At the time, he was also often active around the activist-politician Daniel Cohn-BenditDaniel Cohn-Bendit
Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit is a Franco-German politician, active in both countries. He was a student leader during the unrest of May 1968 in France and he was also known during that time as Dany le Rouge...
and professor Jacques Monod
Jacques Monod
Jacques Lucien Monod was a French biologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965, sharing it with François Jacob and Andre Lwoff "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis"...
of Jussieu University.
With these actions, he dismissed the traditional artistic media of drawing, painting and sculpture, favouring the use of communication technologies in impoverished neighbourhoods (1967), video (1967) as well as printed and audiovisual press mechanisms. Notably, in 1972 at the occasion of the Salon titled “Comparison” at the “Grand Palais” in Paris, he openly argued with its official cultural institutions in denouncing their alleged heinous exploitation of market economics and political maneuvering. In June 1973 he organized a number of experiments in video exchange amidst communities of retirees in the south of France, an action of which philosopher Vilem Flusser
Vilém Flusser
Vilém Flusser was a Czech-born philosopher, writer and journalist. He lived for a long period in São Paulo, Brazil and later in France, and his works are written in several different languages....
and sociologist Philippe Buteaud were tributaries.
In October 1973 at the occasion of the XII Bienal de São Paulo
São Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial , which serves as its role model....
, http://www.webnetmuseum.org/html/en/expo-retr-fredforest/actions/08_en.htm#text he effectuated a series of political provocations calling into question the established military dictatorship. In effect, he invited the Biennale’s artists to overstep the official framework of the event to extend their expression into the very streets of Brazil. As a result of the concrete manifestation of this project, a procession in which artistic collaborators cum demonstrators took to the main streets of São Paulo bearing white placards, he was arrested and taken to the Political Police Headquarters, a retaliation that generated international media attention effectively achieving the artist’s intended artistic-political goal. Forest formalized this now clear trajectory upon returning from this experience in May 1974, Forest organized an exhibition bearing the epiteth “sociological art” at the Galerie German in Paris.
From 1974 to 1980
At the occasion of this exhibition, Forest met Michel JourniacMichel Journiac
Michel Journiac was one of the founders of the 1960s and 1970s Body Art movement in France, called "Art corporel". During these years, many artists started to use the human body as their material. Accordingly, this artist used his own body to perform rituals which he documented through...
and together they gathered a number of artists together to begin a movement engaged with critical and sociological realities. The meetings brought together artists such as Gina Pane
Gina Pane
Gina Pane..... was a French artist. She was one of the founders of the 1970s Body Art movement in France, called "Art corporel". Pane was best known for her performance piece The Conditioning which was recreated by Marina Abramovic as part of her 7 easy pieces in 2005....
, Bertand Lavier, Thierry Agullo
Thierry Agullo
Thierry Agullo was a French artist born in Bordeaux in 1945, died in a car accident in Poitiers on 29 January 1980.He is best known for his collections of irons, shoes, and other objects in the sociological art movement of the 1970s.-Biography:...
, Joan Rabsacal, Jocelyne Hervé, Hervé Fischer, Jean-Paul Thenot as well as art critics François Pluchart
François Pluchart
François Pluchart was a French art critic an a journalist.He was one of the theorists of Body art in France, with artists like Michel Journiac and Gina Pane and founded the art journal ArTitudes....
and Bernard Teyssedre.
On the 10th of October 1974, the Sociological Art Collective was officially declared with the publication in newspaper Le Monde of its first manifesto, signed by Hervé Fischer, Fred Forest and Jean-Paul Thénot. From this date onwards, these artists would alternate between practices claiming this lineage and their own personal practices. Concretely speaking, the collective published a number of texts, organized and effectuated a series of projects, and participated in colloquia and exhibitions.
Key Moments
- 10th of October 1974 – Official proclamation of the Sociological Art Collective with Manifesto #1 published in newspaper Le Monde
- January 1975 – « Art and its socio-economic structures » exhibition organized at the Galerie German, Paris, with works from : Art et Language, Willy Bongard, Hervé Fischer, Fred Forest, Hans Haacke, John Latharn, Les Lévine, Lea Lublin, Jacques Pineau, Adrian Piper, Klaus Staeck, Bernard Teyssèdre and Jean-Paul Thenot
- May 1975 – Sociological Art Manifesto #2
- July 1975 – Exhibition at the Centre for Art and Communication (C.A.Y.C.) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- August 1975 – Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
- March 1976 – Sociological Art Manifesto #3
- July 1976 – Venice BiennaleVenice BiennaleThe Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
commissioner Pierre RestanyPierre RestanyPierre Restany , was an internationally known French art critic and cultural philosopher.Restany was born in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda, Pyrénées-Orientales, and spent his childhood in Casablanca. On returning to France in 1949 he attended the Lycée Henri-IV before studying at universities in France,...
calls upon key members of the Sociological Art Collective for the French Pavilion.
- February 1977 – Sociological Art Manifesto #4
Theory
Sociological Art has two goals: firstly, to question existing artistic practice and secondly to develop a critical analysis of society through a sociologically interventionist practice.Sociological Art is a praxis that criticizes all and any forms of alienation by using art as its platform and technology and critical methodology as its levers. With the development of post-1945 expansionism and globalisation, artistic concepts had to adapt. Sociological Art holds that the recasting of the function, methods, tools, materials and aims of artists was inevitable at a period of such social upheaval.
It proposed to consider art in terms of interaction, animation and the creation of structures of exchange, provocation and disruption of conventional social behaviours with a view to denouncing all and any forms of conditioning. In a classic move of Détournement
Detournement
A détournement is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and consist in "turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself." Détournement was prominently used to set up subversive political pranks, an influential tactic called situationist prank that was...
often associated with the Situationists, Sociological Art aimed to draw attention to the channels of power and communication it was aiming to undermine.
It called upon derision, simulacrum and humorous cum critical ellipses in order to explode or alter a certain reality structured by the social codes of the time. Sociological Art attempted to establish the modalities required for participative and discursive communication between artists and the public. This stance was in strict opposition with traditional artistic and cultural dogmas in terms of media, intention, method, aim, linguistic register, location and audience.
As summarized by Fred Forest: The practical aim of Sociological Art is to provide the necessary conditions of existence for various devices that frame a given efficient and effective questioning or investigation, thereby establishing the optimal conditions for a situation of intersubjectivity
Intersubjectivity
Intersubjectivity is a term used in philosophy, psychology, sociology and anthropology to describe a condition somewhere between subjectivity and objectivity, one in which a phenomenon is personally experienced but by more than one subject....
.
Steeped in the theories of Existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
and Situationism and the political realities of the time, Sociological Art was a politically engaged response to an art world that was perceived as being out of touch both with the technologies and the society of its time.
Beyond
The Sociological Art movement per se dissipated over the years, though its founders retained its tenets in their own artistic practice. It defines the work of Fred ForestFred Forest
Fred Forest is a French new media artist making use of video, photography, the printed press, mail, radio, television, telephone, telematics, and the internet in a wide range of installations, performances, and public interventions that explore both the ramifications and potential of media space...
and was further adapted and theorized in his subsequent theory of Communication aesthetics
Communication aesthetics
Communication Aesthetics was devised by Mario Costa and Fred Forest at Mercato San Severino in Italy in 1983. It is a theory of aesthetics calling for artistic practise engaging with and working through the developments, evolutions and paradigms of late twentieth century communications technologies...
. Though relatively unknown today, it is thoroughly emblematic of the historical upheavals after the second world war in France and Europe generally. It is also clear that Sociological Art foresaw the need for communicational art long before Nicolas Bourriaud
Nicolas Bourriaud
Nicolas Bourriaud is a French curator and art critic. He co-founded, and from 1999 to 2006 was co-director of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris together with Jerôme Sans. He was also founder and director of the contemporary art magazine Documents sur l'art , and correspondent in Paris for Flash Art from...
’s 1992 theory of Relational Aesthetics.
Examples
- May 1967, Portrait de famille ( L'Hay-les-roses, Banlieue parisienne),
- June 1973 Video-troisieme âge,
- October 1973 Le blanc envahit la ville,
- November 1973 Sociological promenade Brooklyn,
- Nov 1989 Regime, change ballad
- May 1991 The electronic Bible and the persian gulf war,
- 1992, Die-Cut Plug Wiring Diagram BookDie-Cut Plug Wiring Diagram BookDie-Cut Plug Wiring Diagram Book is an artist's book by the English artist Mark Pawson, originally published in early 1992. Originally consisting of 36 full-size reproductions of British AC power plug wiring diagrams printed in various colours, the book has become celebrated as an example of...
by Mark Pawson - October 1992 Fred Forest Président,
- May 1993 The watchtowers of peace,