The Quick and the Dead - Walker Art Center – Minneapolis

The Walker Art Center presents, until September 27, “The Quick and the Dead”, an exhibition which gathers 53 international artists in the lineage of conceptual art to show how art, since the late 60’s, tried to help in the evolution of time and space’s comprehension, and of what lies beyond our perception.

The title of the exhibition comes from a biblical phrase describing the judgement of the living and the dead at the end of time. This famous sentence has been used in many ways, for instance by the designer and scientist Richard Buckminster Fuller, who, in 1947 praised the ‘quick realities’ and condemned the ‘dead superstitions’. Indeed, from the fifties, science started to be able to answer to phenomenon’s that were part of mysteries. The birth of conceptual art in the sixties is significant of those progresses. Such artists as Joseph Kosuth had the aim of giving and answering to metaphysical questions whether religious, scientific or philosophical: to summarize, what lies, in Robert Barry’s words “totally outside of our perceptual limitation”.

The Walker Art Center displays a large rank of artists under the name of conceptual art, from the early sixties until nowadays. Some pieces were produced or realized for the occasion. At the edge of the discernable, artists wanted to make us consider ‘an art verging on the non existent, dissolving into other dimensions’ (George Brecht). “Timekeeper”, a work by Pierre Huyghe, is relevant of the actuality of those problematics: it is a circular abrasion to the wall revealing the successive layers of paint from the past exhibitions. Time becomes palpable. Other questions about time and space become tangible in this exhibition, like the foldable sculpture of Lygia Clark, which embodies space folding on itself. Oddities of things, of our perceptions, feelings of uncanny are featured. An occasion to rediscover conceptual art and ask what is today alive or dead within its legacy.

This exhibition will be also showcased outside of the center’s major galleries, in the parking ramp for instance, and there will be a weekly performance of a John Cage composition on the organ at the nearby Basilica of Saint Mary.
 
Artists presented :
Francis Alys, Robert Barry, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht, James Lee Byars, John Cage, Maurizio Cattelan, Paul Chan, Lygia Clark, Tony Conrad, Tacita Dean, Jason Dodge, Tisha Donnely, Marcel Duchamp, Harold Edgerton, Ceal Floyer, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roger Hiorns, Douglas Huebler, Pierre Huyges, The Institute for Figuring, Stephen Kaletenbach, On Kawara, Christine Kozlov, David Lamelas, Louise Lawler, Paul Etienne Lincoln, Mark Manders, Kris Martin, Steve Mc Queen, Helen Mirra, Catherine Murphy, Bruce Nauman, Rivane Neuenschwander, Claes Oldenburg, Roman Ondik, Guiseppe Penone, Susan Philipsz, Anthony Phillips, Adran Pipper, Steven Pippin, Paul Ramirez Joans, Charles Ray, Tobias Rehberger, Hannah Rickards, Arthur Russels, Michael Sailstorfer, Roman Signer, Simon Starling, John Stezake, Malden Stilinovic, Sturtevant, Shomei Tomtasu.


[Visual : Stephen Kaltenbach, Time Capsule (OPEN AFTER MY DEATH STEPHEN KALTENBACH), 1970mild steel 3 x 6 x 3 in. Courtesy the artist and Another Year in LA, Los Angeles]