Made by Sculptors? Forms of sculpture today Johan Pas Prologue It is the year 3073. The crew of a space ship from the planet XXX sets foot on Luna, the uninhabited sister of Sculpture the planet Terra. They find just a single interesting trace of civilisation: an anthropomorphic statuette in alumi- nium, 1.91 cm thick and 8.89 cm long, next to a me- is what you tal plate with an inscription in indecipherable lettering. After years of study, the object is identified as Fallen Astronaut (1971) by the Flemish artist Paul Van Hoe- bump into ydonck (°1925). This bewildering discovery prompts a new paradigm in art history. Contrary to a widely held belief that had endured for centuries, Flanders was not when you a nation of painters at the end of the twentieth century, but a nation of sculptors. The title of this themed edition of OKV is based on an back up to see exhibition entitled Door beeldhouwers gemaakt (Made by Sculptors) held exactly thirty years ago in the Ste- delijk Museum Amsterdam. Back then, this landmark a painting. exhibition offered an appraisal of the �post-minimalis- tic�, �post-conceptual� and �anti-form� sculpture of the (Barnett Newman) 1970s and, in particular, attempted to identify the trans- boundary aspects of this three-dimensional art. Not one Belgian artist was represented at the exhibition. Thanks to the presence of top internationals such as Carl Andre, Richard Serra and Joseph Beuys, the exhibition made a lasting impression on the young Flemish artist Paul Gees (°1949). A good thirty years later, and the world of art has changed radically. Nowadays, sculpture is not what it was (back then). And, more pointedly - is there even such a thing as sculpture now? Apparently so, for in September 2008, the Antwerp open air sculpture show took place on the hushed south docklands. This Content event was collaboration between the Antwerp galleries, the Muhka, and the Middelheim Museum, and was set up by Luc Deleu and his T.O.P. office. The word “sculp- ture” was featured prominently in the announcement and it wasn’t thought necessary, for that matter, to place it between quotation marks. 2 Sculpture? Today?? 6 Showing sculptures 12 Artists selection 36 Exhibitions and themes 41 Practical information discipline as specific as sculpture is Fluxus artists also led to an open- not as natural as it would seem. ing up of the idea of “visual art”. Until the late 1980s, publications Belgian pioneers are Marcel Brood- Sculpture? Today?? with titles such as �Schilderkunst thaers, Jef Geys, Jacques Charlier, in België� (Painting in Belgium) or Hugo Heyrman, Filip Francis, Guy �Beeldhouwkunst in Vlaanderen� Mees, Philippe Van Snick and Pan- (Sculpture in Flanders) were still amarenko. What these artists have in quite normal. But in the last decade, common is that they no longer start multidisciplinarity (using different out from one particular medium but media) and interdisciplinarity (com- from an idea, on the basis of which bining different media) seem to have they select a medium (assemblage, become a matter of artistic necessi- installation, photographic work, ty. Even those artists who obviously film, artists’ book, etc.). This con- concentrate on, and associate them- ceptual turning of the tables, which selves with, one particular medium, took place in the second half of the such as painting or sculpture, feel al- 1960s, is crucial to any understand- most obligated to take a lateral step ing of contemporary sculpture. towards film or photography these Prior to this, after about 1960, days. Indeed, our contemporary art- sculpture itself experienced drastic ists are expected to show extreme shifts. Whereas pop artists soon versatility and flexibility. Clinging allowed it to coincide with real- obstinately to just one medium (let ity (for example, Warhol’s Brillo alone a traditional one) is simply out boxes), minimalists reduced it to of the picture. In many cases, this its most basic aspects (colour, form, interdisciplinary route is inherent in space: the floorpieces by Carl An- the artistic vision of the artist, but dre, for example) and earthwork in others it appears to be more of a artists stretched it out into large- fashion imposed by the art world. scale projects in natural settings Today, artists involved in classical (for example, The Spiral Jetty by sculpture do opt very deliberately for Robert Smithson). The studio was this unruly, laborious and physical abandoned in favour of the land- medium, which is rooted firmly in scape or city. Post-studio and inter- tradition. It is anything but natural media were the buzzwords for the in this era of digital information and new avant-garde of the late 1960s. lightning fast communication. This Art and artists helped themselves Has sculpture made a return? The Verlangen [Sculptural Desire], CC the positive, affirmative character Catalogue of the exhibition there were also works to be seen in is because techniques such as mod- by escaping the straightjacket of Antwerp sculpture show and other Belgica, Dendermonde, 2006). Last of the original 1978 exhibition. In ‘Door beeldhouwers “traditional” and “natural” materi- elling, casting, burnishing, assem- the traditional art business and its gemaakt (Made by events do indeed seem to indicate year, the British publishers Phai- other words, this themed issue on sculptors)’, 1978, Stedelijk als such as wood, stone, bronze and bling, welding and constructing are obsession with paintings and sculp- that sculpture has made something don issued a substantial survey of contemporary sculpture starts out Museum Amsterdam clay. This is precisely why Made by complex, labour intensive, and time tures. By the year 1970, visual art of a comeback in recent years. This contemporary sculpture, Sculpture on a querying note, and not from LIBRARY MIDDELHEIMMUSEUM, sculptors marks an important mo- consuming. This makes sculpture was no longer required to be �vis- ANTWERP year the Muhka presented an exhibi- Today, by Judith Collins (2007), an established position. What can ment in the development of contem- something of an inert medium. But ual� in the strictest sense. There tion on contemporary art from In- which, for that matter, features no be considered as “sculpture” today? Catalogue of the exhibition porary sculpture. At this point, the what some people see as an inherent was even a sense that painting and dia, with sculpture as its conceptual less than eight Belgian artists: Wim And is that description of any actual ‘Lang Leve Beeldhouwkunst! strictly action, idea and process- weakness in the medium is perceived sculpture was passé. Events, situa- (Long live sculpture!)’, theme (Santhal Family. Positions Delvoye, Jan Vercruysse, Berlinde value in contemporary art? 2006, Middelheimmuseum, driven arts that were still dominant by others as its very strength. tions, processes, projects, concepts around an Indian sculpture, 2008). De Bruyckere, Jan Van Oost, Ann- Antwerp until shortly before then gave way to and documents seemed to advance LIBRARY MIDDELHEIMMUSEUM, In 2005, the Dutch art magazine Veronica Janssen, Jan Fabre, Di- THE POWER OF THE INERT a return to palpable and static works AFTER DEMATERIALISATION the sorely needed dematerialisation ANTWERP Metropolis M devoted several arti- dier Vermeiren and Panamarenko. It seems that, thirty years ago, there of art. It seemed that sculpture, hav- In this sense, choosing sculpture of the art object. The American art- cles (issue 5, Oct. Nov. 2005) to the Though it may appear only natural, was also talk of a return to sculpture ing been absent for a while from the goes against the grain as much today ist Lawrence Weiner published his so-called contemporary sculpture. this interest in sculpture is only so at in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. progressive discourse, was now well as writing or video did in around sculptures as written statements In 2006, the Middelheim Museum first sight. The art has been becoming After the temporary events or the and truly back. Only, during the 1970, before painting and sculpture to be commissioned, or not, by the organised an exhibition with the less and less self-explanatory since textual documentation of concep- process, it had lost the naturalness of lost their dominant positions. In owner. This liberation movement (un)ambiguous title of Lang Leve the late 1960s. Even thirty years tual art in the late 1960s, processes its existence, and its innocence. The those days, new media such as film, was extensively documented in Beeldhouwkunst! (Long Live Sculp- ago, the term “sculptor” would have again appeared to be condensing into radical experiments of the 1960s had photography and video only really 1973 by the American critic and ex- ture!). That year, I myself put togeth- sounded fairly ambiguous in Made objects. The most commonly used made it nearly impossible to pursue started to find their niche in the hibition organiser Lucy Lippard in er a small group exhibition featuring by sculptors, for there was no sculp- materials were, by normal sculpting sculpture with any degree of naive- visual arts. Andy Warhol was a pio- the standard work, Six Years. The the work of a few young Flemish art- ture, in the traditional sense, to be standards, unorthodox to be fair: ty. That is why today, another three neer who played a crucial role in this dematerialisation of the art object ists who are into a peculiar sort of seen. The question mark placed at rope, fibreglass, chicken wire, neon decades later, dedicating an exhibi- process. Alan Kaprow’s happenings from 1966 to 1972 (Praeger, NY, unplugged sculpture (Sculpturaal the end of the title now undermines and video tapes. But alongside this, tion, book or magazine edition to a and the musical events held by the 1973). 2 Made by Sculptors? Made by Sculptors? 3 BETWEEN CONCEPT AND OBJECT This purge of the artistic exploit acted as a form of purification.