Nicholas Bourriaud's Relational Aesthetics

Nicholas Bourriaud’s 1998 book Relational Aesthetics (Esthétique Relationnelle) has unquestionably been a successful catalyst of discussion. Relational Aesthetics has led the way in attempting to scrutinise and classify artworks by a generation of European artists during the nineteen-nineties. Over time, the book has become regarded by many as an essential text. Bourriaud described an innovative ‘relational’ concept of art, with the viewer’s interaction developing into an element of the piece of art. Relational art is frequently not regarded as art because it questions the perception and experience of art. Redolent of the period from which it developed, Relational Aesthetics reflects the beginning of internet culture instantaneous interaction.

Bourriaud’s initial use of the term Relational Aesthetics was in a 1995/1996 catalogue for the Traffic exhibition in Bordeaux. Responses by critics such as Ben Lewis, Claire Bishop Chris Cobb, Hal Foster, Ben Davis and Mark Pennings bring to light the strengths and weaknesses of Relational Aesthetics.
Bourriaud [fig 1] delves into the concept of relational aesthetics via illustrations of what he considers to be relational art.

Bourriaud states relational art incorporates "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space." (Bourriaud, p 113, 1998) He perceives artists to be driving forces rather than creators, and deems art to be data interchanged between the artist and the spectators. The work of art produces a societal milieu in which the public are able to converge and take part in a communal endeavor. Bourriaud states "the role of artworks is no longer to form imaginary and utopian realities, but to actually be ways of living and models of action within the existing real, whatever scale chosen by the artist." (Bourriaud, p 13,

1998)
Bourriaud curated the Traffic exhibition at the CAPC musee d’art contemporain de Bordeaux musee in 1995/1996. This exhibition involved many of the artists whose work Bourriaud classified under the title of Relational Aesthetics and would often comment on during the course of the nineteen nineties. These artists include Rirkrit Tiravanija, Carsten Höller, Liam Gillick and Vanessa Beecroft. In May of 1996, Bourriaud wrote in the Traffic: Space-times of the Exchange of the artists in this exhibition, “They are not linked together by any style, and even less so by any theme or iconography. What these artists do have in common, though, is more crucial, because they are working within the same practical and theoretical horizon—the realm of relationships between people. Their works highlight social methods of exchange, interactivity with the onlooker within the aesthetic experience proposed to him/her, and communication processes, in their tangible dimension as tools for linking human beings and groups to one another. So they are all working within what we might call the relational realm.” (Bourriaud, 1996) Along with Jérôme Sans, Bourriaud co-directed the Palais de Tokyo, Paris from 1999 to 2006. It is Bourriaud’s desire that art discontinues "to take shelter behind Sixties art history", and alternately strive to give substitute benchmarks for the frequently obscure and unrestricted/open-ended art from the nineteen nineties to be analytically scrutinized (Bourriaud, p 1998). In order to accomplish this, Bourriaud uses nineteen nineties internet expressions such as user-friendly and DIY. In his 2001/2002 book Postproduction: Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World, Bourriaud associates the maneuvers disc jockeys employ whilst deejaying to that of present day art practice. He depicts his book Relational Aesthetics as focusing on art works diverge from physical communication to electronic.
In 2011, author and art critic Ben Lewis claimed Relational Aesthetics to be, “the best-known art theory book of the last ten years and on the reading list of virtually every art school course in the world.” (Lewis, 2011) Lewis observes numerous parallels between relational art and other art movements such as impressionism, expressionism and cubism at their initial stages. He was inquisitive about various artists’ reactions when pigeon-holed as ‘relational’. When Lewis chose to produce a movie, he could not foresee how provocative this topic would be. He observed that a number of artists appeared to be uncomfortable with the idea of being pigeon-holed into any group, and many rejected the opinion that they were relational (Lewis, 2011).
Claire Bishop is a critic, author and art historian. Her 2004 Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, depicts the art of Palais de Tokyo as "laboratory" and the "curatorial modus operandi" of artistic endeavors created during the nineteen nineties. (Bishop, pg. 52) Bishop explains, "An effect of this insistent promotion of these ideas as artists-as-designer, function over contemplation, and open-endedness over aesthetic resolution is often ultimately to enhance the status of the curator, who gains credit for stage-managing the overall laboratory experience.” As Hal Foster warned in the mid-1990s, "the institution may overshadow the work that it otherwise highlights: it becomes the spectacle, it collects the cultural capital, and the director-curator becomes the star." (Bishop, pg. 53, 2004) Bishop distinguishes Bourriaud's book as crucial in classifying art trends during the nineteen nineties. Conversely, Bishop questions, "if relational art produces human relations, then the next logical question to ask is what types of relations are being produced, for whom, and why?" She also considers "the relations set up by relational aesthetics are not intrinsically democratic, as Bourriaud suggests, since they rest too comfortably within an ideal of subjectivity as whole and of community as immanent togetherness." (Bishop, pg. 2004)
Bourriaud curated the exhibition, Touch: Relational Art from the 1990s to Now, during 2002.

Some artists whose work was presented are Liam Gillick, Philippe Parreno and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Artist and critic Chris Cobb considers Bourriaud's view of art in the 1990s as authentication of the expression of relational art, whilst illustrating "different forms of social interaction as art that deal fundamentally with issues regarding public and private space." (http://www.stretcher.org/features/touch_-_relational_art_from_the_1990s_to_now/) Relational aesthetics artworks are inclined to disconnect with the conventional physical and societal area of a museum or art gallery, and the isolation of the artist workshop. Instead, Relational aesthetics embraces as its theme life and the vigorous community milieu, in preference to attempting an imitative portrayal of everyday objects portrayed out of context.

Thai artist Rikrit Tiravanija is widely known for his 1992 untitled solo show in New York of Thai food at 303 Gallery. Throughout the exhibition, the artist prepared Thai food for forty people each night in a kitchen that was specifically constructed within the gallery itself [fig 1] - 2). Tiravanija explained “it is not what you see that is important but what takes place between people”. The shared event of food preparation and consuming the meal develops into the art on display, with the artist acting as the master of

ceremonies.
Eminent artist Tino Sehgal will not consent to photographs of his installations which are made up of people that generate distinctive, frequently conceptual, events for the onlooker. For “This Progress” exhibition, the artist instructed specific scholars to lead guests into the museum, partaking in discussions with them whilst strolling. In this instance, the discussion is the means of expression and meaning; the experience of interaction is the comprehension of the work of art.