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Robert Morris: Bodyspacemotionthings at Tate Modern
This video brought to you by Tate.org.uk
Participatory art was a new concept when the exhibition Bodyspacemotionthings first went on show at the Tate in 1971. Created by the American artist Robert Morris, it consists of a series of beams, weights, platforms, rollers, tunnels and ramps that people can clamber all over. It closed just four days after opening, due to safety concerns over the wildly enthusiastic reaction of the audience. Take a look at this 2009 recreation of the piece and listen as curators Catherine Wood and Kathy Noble talk about Morris's vision of art and participation. Created by Tate.
Participatory art was a new concept when the exhibition Bodyspacemotionthings first went on show at the Tate in 1971. Created by the American artist Robert Morris, it consists of a series of beams, weights, platforms, rollers, tunnels and ramps that people can clamber all over. It closed just four days after opening, due to safety concerns over the wildly enthusiastic reaction of the audience. Take a look at this 2009 recreation of the piece and listen as curators Catherine Wood and Kathy Noble talk about Morris's vision of art and participation. Created by Tate.
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This looks like so much fun. Participatory art is something I've never even heard of before. Has any other artist put up anything like this before? And are there any of these still up and running in any current museums? I think a concept like this would draw in people that never considered going to an art museum.(10 votes)
This art for me is all about using your bodily senses to focus on the present moment. Meaning that we are usually in a past-tense, past- history of brain function that stops us from being in the present moment. To be creative and to be forward looking we have to focus on our other senses in order to move our brains to think in another way than habitual past-tense.(1 vote)
Is it important that overwhelmingly young, agile, attractive participants are involved?(3 votes)
No, the importance for the art itself is not in the youth, agility or attractiveness of the participants. For those who value these three characteristics and may be attracted to the exhibition by such people in the presentations and, perhaps, adverts.... Well, that's another thing altogether.(2 votes)
Would some of this art be dangerous(1 vote)- Hi Dawnell, while I think this exhibition was looking to explore ideas around movement (and potential danger) in the gallery, the re-creation of it would certainly have had safeguards in place. But the original exhibition in 1971 closed just a few days after its opening, specifically because of potential safety issues!(1 vote)
Video transcript
we're in the turbine model of tate modern and we're standing in their recreation of Robert Morris's bodyspace inflation's things which was an exhibition that took place in what was taken Tate Gallery in 1971 Robert Morris has always been very open to all very unpress about the way that his work is made and preserved he would always rather remake a sculpture than transported it I think well part of our interest really was in the experiment of staging again now in a space in which people are so used to participating it's a space where people feel uninhibited and feel kind of conceptually open to maybe engaging some why this this one here is probably the hardest one to be honest you really have to be quite strong and the idea that it's a semi climbing rule and you squeeze yourself between their separate blocks and then push yourself up in the eye of the piece behind me is that the roof and the slope they only stand with you between them so you're supposed to push yourself up and it gradually sandwiches you as you get to the top of the room Robert Morris in his work has always been very interested in how you might experience things via your body not just our site and mr. piece was the kind of furthest that he pushed that idea I think many artists very many artists are influenced by this work there are certain artists like gosh Kermit cougar or a group called continuous project altar daily in New York who may work with some kind of direct homage to Robert Morris but many many more who are working across filter and performance another debt his practice it was such an important event in Tate's own history that that's part of the reason we wanted to bring it back to light because the extent to which the institution has evolved in the past 38 years but I think this was the kind of one of the radical groundbreaking things that precipitated the change