do it (party)
Presentation of do it, a project curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Time: June 11, 2013, 7 pm
Venue: Mayakovsky 102, the open office of tranzit. hu, 1068 Budapest Király utca 102., 1st floor
tranzit.hu and Independent Curators International (ICI) announce do it (party), the first presentation in Hungary of do it, a project curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist. The program is realized in conjunction with an open lecture on ICI and its exhibition program by ICI director-at-large Kate Fowle, in the framework of tranzit.hu Free School for Art Theory and Practice on 16 May.
Do it began in Paris in 1993 as a conversation between Obrist and the artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier who were curious to see what would happen if they started an exhibition that would never stop and could constantly generate new versions of itself. The discussion led to the question of whether a show could take “scores” or written instructions by artists as a point of departure, which could be interpreted anew each time they were enacted. 20 years later, do it has been featured in at least 50 different locations worldwide, including Australia, China, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, Colombia, Slovenia, and Uruguay.
Marcel Duchamp, who stated that “art is a game between all people of all periods”, is only one of several precedents to have shaped the modus operandi of this exhibition, which also draws from Conceptual and Minimalist art of the 1960s and 1970s as well as Fluxus practices. Each do it exhibition is site-specific because it engages the local community in a dialogue that responds to a set of instructions, but also remains global in the scope of its ever-expanding repertoire.
In May 2013, on the twentieth anniversary of the project, ICI and D. A. P. launched do it: the compendium, a comprehensive book that contains essays, interviews, documentation and a selection of instructions by 250 artists, 84 of which are newly published for the occasion.
Unprecedented in the project's twenty-year history, the Hungarian presentation of do it will take the form of a one-night event open to the public, which is organized to the last detail along 22 selected instructions. Taking Amalia Pica's instruction “Throw a party” as its starting point and paying tribute to Fluxus events held in studios and private apartments, food, drinks, performances, programs, installations and situations will be presented based on instructions by Jerome Bel, Meg Cranston, Douglas Gordon, Sol LeWitt, Lee Lozano, Rivane Neuenschwander, Pedro Reyes, Tino Sehgal, and Mladen Stilinovic, among others; each interpreted and executed by Budapest-based artists and the guests of the party. Do it (party) is conceived by Hajnalka Somogyi.
Do it is conceived and curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, and organized by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York. The exhibition and the accompanying publication were made possible, in part by grants from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and with the generous support from Project Perpetual and ICI’s International Forum and Board of Trustees.
Image: Jérôme Bel
Shirtology, 2012
© Tate, 2012; Photo: Tate Photography, Gabrielle Fonseca Johnson
