A Book of Burning Matches: Collecting Installation Art Documents
- Submitting institution
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London Metropolitan University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 19.32
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- -
- Brief description of type
- Curatorial project
- Open access status
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2015
- URL
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https://issuu.com/arts_londonmet/docs/ndo___a_book_of_burning_matches
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
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- Research group(s)
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2 - The Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- “A Book of Burning Matches: Collecting Installation Art Documents” is the result of 30 years of curating and researching Installation art by De Oliveira and his collaborator Nicola Oxley. The exhibition, held at the Me Collectors Room in Berlin, comprises documentation of some 200 past installation projects co-curated by de Oliveira. The display takes the form of maquettes, photographs, videos, texts and books, as well as fragments of larger works and complete small objects.
The project functions as a miniature, compressing several decades of works and their surrounding questions with a focus on three key areas:
- What impact has Installation art had on art in the 21st Century and how has this altered our perception of what art is?
- Can we argue for curation as an artform in its own right?
- Do exhibitions reinforce or weaken authorship?
Three phases mark out this exhibition: the Archive, Document, and Display. The Archive most closely resembles a collection. The Document represents the great number of archives which are all overlaid to form the Display, the present-moment configuration of archival components and new works for the occasion of this exhibition.
De Oliveira’s curatorial practice engages international artists and audiences. The exhibition in Berlin was attended by some 6,000 visitors and was further disseminated through a mini symposium, a dedicated website, and an eponymous publication.
The research and production of a sustained programme of exhibitions over three decades, by this author and through his collaborations, have contributed considerably to the development of ‘installation art’ from a marginal practice to mainstream recognition as an artform. Moreover, De Oliveira’s curatorial practice draws on questions that position installation art as a fluid activity that is inherently ongoing and strongly dependent on the interaction with a particular space, its broader context, and most saliently its audience.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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