Exhibition-ism: Temporal Togetherness

Consideration of recent shows of Mieke Bal’s video work, framed by observations on contemporary sculpture’s response to classics of the form.

In Exhibition-ism, theorist and artist Mieke Bal develops the idea that exhibiting is a significant form of the contemporary. In an exhibition, visitors are in the actual company of artworks that can perform. This book considers recent shows of Bal’s own video work, and is framed by observations on contemporary sculpture’s response to classics of the form. Looking at art as process, Bal makes the case that the being-together-in-time of an exhibition visit encourages and, if the curation is well-thought-out, can heighten the sense of the contemporaneity–art being more capable of this than anything else.