LucioFontana

ManifestodelMovimentoSpazialeperlaTelevisione
Noispazialitrasmettiamo,perlaprimavoltanelmondo,attraversolatelevisione,lenostrenuove
formed'arte,basatesuiconcettidellospazio,vistosottoundupliceaspetto:
ilprimoquellodeglispazi,unavoltaconsideratimisteriosiedormainotiesondati,equindidanoi
usaticomemateriaplastica;
ilsecondoquellodeglispaziancoraignotidelcosmo,chevogliamoaffrontarecomedatidiintuizionee
dimistero,datitipicidell'artecomedivinazione.
Latelevisionepernoiunmezzocheattendevamocomeintegrativodeinostriconcetti.Siamolietiche
dall'Italiavengatrasmessaquestanostramanifestazionespaziale,destinataarinnovareicampi
dell'arte.
E'verochel'arteeterna,mafusemprelegataallamateria,mentrenoivogliamocheessanesia
svincolata,echeattraversolospazio,possadurareunmillennio,anchenellatrasmissionediunminuto.
Lenostreespressioniartistichemoltiplicanoall'infinito,ininfinitedimensioni,lelineed'orizzonte;esse
ricercanounesteticapercuiilquadrononpiquadro,lasculturanonpiscultura,lapaginascritta
escedallasuaformatipografica.
Noispazialisticisentiamogliartistidioggi,poichleconquistedellatecnicasonoormaiaservizio
dell'artechenoiprofessiamo.
Ambrosiani,Burri,Crippa,Deluigi,DeToffoli,Dova,Donati,Fontana,Giancarozzi,Guidi,Joppolo,
LaRegina,Milena,Dilani,Morucchio,Peverelli,Tancredi,Vinello.
Milano,17Maggio1952
Disponvelem:http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/sourcetext/70/?itaacessoem22abril2014

LucioFontana
TelevisionManifestooftheSpatialMovement
Forthefirsttimethroughouttheworld,weSpatialistsareusingtelevisiontotransmitournewformsof
artbasedontheconceptsofspace,tobeunderstood
fromtwopointsofview:
thefirstconcernsspacesthatwereonceconsideredmysteriousbutthatarenowknownandexplored,
andthatwethereforeuseasplasticmaterial:
thesecondconcernsthestillunknownspacesofthecosmosspacestowhichweaddressourselvesas
dataofintuitionandmystery,thetypicaldataofartas
divination.
Forus,televisionisameansthatwehavebeenwaitingfortogivecompletenesstoourconcepts.We
arehappythatthisSpatialmanifestationofoursisbeing
transmittedfromItalyamanifestationdestinedtorenewthefieldsofart.
Itistruethatartiseternal,butitwasalwaystieddowntomatter,whereaswewantittobefreedfrom
matter.
Throughspace,wewantittobeabletolastamillenniumevenforatransmissionofonlyaminute.

Outartisticexpressionsmultiplythelinesofthehorizontotheinfiniteandininfinitedimensions.They
arearesearchforanaestheticinwhichapaintingis
nolongerpainted,asculpturenolongersculpted,andinwhichthewrittenpageleavesbehindits
typographicalform.
WeSpatialistsfeelourselvestobetheartistsoftoday,sincetheconquestsoftechnologyarebynowat
theserviceoftheartweprofess.
Signedby,
AMBROSINI,BURRI,CRIPPA,DELUIGI,DETOFFOLI,DOVA,DONATI,FONTANA,
GIANCAROZZI,GUIDI,JOPPOLO,LAREGINA,MILENAMILANI,MORUCCHIO,
PEVERELLI,TANCREDI,VIANELLO.
Milan,May17,l952
Source:ThismanifestowasdistributedduringatelevisionbroadcastbyLucioFontana,hewasnotable
toreadit.

WHENATTITUDESBECOMEFORM
BarryBarker
Flash Art n. 275 November December 2010
AMARCORD
LIVE IN YOUR HEAD
TO REFLECT UPON an exhibition that took place over 40 years ago is a strange and
salutary experience, and I am grateful that I still have the faculties to recall Live in
your Head: When Attitudes Become Form, the exhibition I visited at the Institute of
Contemporary Arts in London in September 1969. During the late 60s through the
mid-70s, it was often considered inappropriate or irrelevant to critically refer to an
artworks context or its authorship. It was the time of the death of the author, when
any understanding of the work of art was to come solely from its own presence, without
reference to metaphor, biography or any other outside circumstances. It now seems
commonplace to consider the context of a work of art, which could be said to carry at
least fifty percent of its meaning, whether it is relating to its materiality, physicality in
terms of place, or social and cultural position. Looking back on this exhibition, context
seems especially relevant.

From top left: (1, 7, 8, 9, 11) Live in your Head: When

Attitudes Become Form. Installation views during the
opening event at Kunsthalle Bern, 1969. Kunsthalle
Bern, Bern. (2, 3, 4, 5, 10) Live in your Head: When
Attitudes Become Form. Installation views of the
exhibition during the opening event at Haus Lange,
Krefeld, Germany, 1969. (6) Live in your Head: When
Attitudes Become Form. Harald Szeemann during the
opening event at Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany, 1969;
sitting in the audience: Paul Wember, Director of
Kunstmuseen Krefeld in 1969. (12) Live in your Head:
When Attitudes Become Form. Paul Wember and artist
Sarkis with two of the artists works during the opening
event at Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany, 1969; on the
wall,
Robert Morris, Batteries with Ripples, 1964; Haus
Lange, Krefeld, Germany, 1969.


In 1968, the I.C.A. had moved from a small space in Dover Street to larger premises in
the Carlton House Terrace, which backed on to the Mall, the road that leads to
Buckingham Palace. This juxtaposition the home of the British monarch close by
what was meant to house the UKs cultural avant-garde was itself a paradox. This
was the first time Id visited this new I.C.A., but I had read and to some extent seen
much of the work in Attitudes while traveling, and therefore was familiar with many of
the artists in the exhibition. I walked down a few steps into an open, modestly large
space; it was obviously not an industrial space and bore the signs of being the exstables and coach house for the above apartments grand occupants of 18th-century
aristocracy. The exhibition was curated and selected by the late Harald Szeemann, at
the time director of Kunsthalle Bern, where the exhibition was first shown. The title was
interesting in itself, as it implied the bringing together of ideas and thoughts, and their
ability to inspire the formation of a material presence. Though in some instances they
did the opposite, staying in the realms of language, or existing as works that to
quote the front of the catalogue live in your head, which was the original title of
Arthur Millers play Death of a Salesman (1949). The exhibition was conceived and
curated not as a means of defining or fixing the art of its time, but the absolute
opposite: to open up the concept of art and to change human perception of
contemporary art as it was then understood. To quote Szeemann in his introduction
to the catalogue, In order to entertain certain ideas we may be obliged to abandon
others upon which we have come to depend. This exhibition was and still is a prime
example of a curator responding to the work of contemporary artists, letting the artists
provide the initiative rather than the curator imposing their personal theories or
worldview, as often happens today. The subtitle to the exhibition, Works-ConceptsProcesses-Situations-Information, in many ways describes its contents. These works
asked spectators to join the artist in stepping outside their comfort zone to allow
their consciousness to be realigned with a new order of things.
This was a time when many artists, writers and gallery directors, whether working
within an institutional or private context, found themselves in a world in which their
vocation and even their aspirations no longer fit happily within a traditional definition of
art or culture. There appeared to be a chasm between language, ideas and the world.
Protests against the Vietnam War were at their height both in America and Europe.
Lacking a fixed cultural order in equilibrium with the past, artists found themselves in a
place of disenchantment. In a positive sense, however, it was also a time of
discussion, idea exchange and information. The world was becoming a smaller place;
every artist and thinker felt that there were many ideas and places to explore, yet they
in turn had something to contribute to the cultural life of a global environment. It was in
this spirit that Szeemann researched and brought to light artistic developments of a
younger generation. When Attitudes Become Form traveled from Kunsthalle Bern to
the Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld (Germany) to the I.C.A. London like a caravan
traveling through a cultural desert from one oasis to another, picking up more local
goods as it went along. It was brought to London on the initiative of the late Charles
Harrison, who was a writer, freelance curator and assistant editor of the magazine
Studio International. Harrison was approached by the sponsor of the exhibition,
cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris, who offered to finance this caravan. At the time,
Harrison was planning an exhibition of his own, but he lacked funding. So instead he
agreed to bring Attitudes to the I.C.A. if he could add his own selection of British
artists, such as Victor Burgin (though he did not include the Art & Language group,
which he was associated with). At that time, the I.C.A.s director had little experience
with visual art, let alone contemporary visual art (his discipline was in the theater), and
so the institution accepted the show mainly for financial reasons in other words
because it was more-or-less free. Still, Harrison resented not being able to curate his
own show, so much so that when Harald Szeemann came to London for the opening,
Harrison is quoted as saying that he hardly talked to him.

From top left clockwise: JOSEPH BEUYS, Jason, 1961.

Live in your Head: When Attitudes become Form.
installation view at Haus Lange Krefeld, 1969. ROBERT
MORRIS, Felt Piece no. 4, 1968. GILBERTO ZORIO,
Untitled (Torcia), 1969. JANNIS KOUNELLIS, Senza
Titolo, 1969. All courtesy Kunstmuseen Krefeld,
Germany. Photos: Archive Kunstmuseen Krefeld,
Germany.

As soon as I saw the exhibition laid out before me I felt the mixed emotions of being
captivated and disappointed at the same time. As I came down the steps, on my left
was a series of sacks that contained different kinds of grains [Jannis Kounellis, untitled,
1969]. Some visitors took handfuls and chewed them while viewing the exhibition and
others threw them on the gallery floor. Some artists were invited by the sponsor to
come to London and install their work; one of them was Reiner Ruthenbeck, from
Germany, and it was his piece that drew my attention next, which consisted of tangled
wire amid a pile of ashes [Aschenhaufen III, 1968] and was said to be about German
war guilt. Ger Van Elk was invited to London to shave a cactus, which was filmed and
then placed forlornly on a low brick wall in the gal lery [The Well Shaven Cactus, 1969].
Joseph Kosuth put statements in several of Londons local newspapers.
As for the disappointments, there were many. The installation of Eva Hesses works
somehow did not look convincing; it was some years later that Harrison admitted he
hadnt installed them correctly through lack of instructions. Another disappointment
was that Lawrence Weiners wall removal [A 36 x 36 Removal to the Lathing or
Support Wall of Plaster, 1968] was not installed. However, the one major omission
was of a work by an artist who we all wished to know more about at the time: Joseph
Beuys. Beuys had been invited to the exhibition, and he offered a new work comprised
of a Volkswagen Microbus and twenty-two sleds with fat and felt [Das Rudel (The
Pack), 1969]. The I.C.A. could not afford the transport cost, so the British Public lost
out on seeing this major 20th-century work for the first time. In his introduction to the
exhibition, Szeemann stated: The exhibition appears to lack unity. [It]gathers a
number of artists whose work has very little in common yet also a great deal in
common. In hindsight, his remarks are understandable because the exhibition
reflected so many different directions that were subsequently categorized as

conceptual art, minimal art, arte povera, land art and installation art. One unifying
aspect was the radical economy and simplicity of the artworks means and materials.
Artists used common materials such as rope, wood, canvas, photocopy and language,
often to greater effect than todays artists who spend huge sums of money on
fabrication.
In Bern, the exhibition so outraged the Swiss public that a few days after the opening
protesters placed a pile of dung in front of the Kunsthalles entrance. Yet in London
the attitude to the show was one of indifference; as long as there was no public funding
it could be happily ignored. I have come to believe that the Swiss public resented the
fact that the exhibition had an English title together with the fact that it was sponsored
by an American company (Szeemann had already been accused by the Kunsthalles
board of trustees of not showing enough Swiss artists). A month after the closing of the
exhibition, Harald Szeemann resigned, going on to develop a more nomadic mode of
working that has come to define much of todays curatorial practice.
Barry Barker is a curator and writer based in London. He is Fellow of the University of
Brighton, UK. Amarcord is a new series of feature articles where Flash Art
International invites writers and curators to discuss landmark exhibitions from the past.
Special thanks to Karin Minger of Kunsthalle Bern, and to Dr. Sabine Rder and Volker
Dhne, respectively Curator and Photographer, of Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Germany.

http://www.flashartonline.com/interno.php?
pagina=articolo_det&id_art=672&det=ok&title=WHEN-ATTITUDESBECOME-FORM
acesso em abril 2014