Nicholas Bourriaud

(Footnotes on the way)

Portable City seeks to have two streams of practice. One which is a public practice. This aspect of my practice has been theoretically influenced by the writings of Guy Debord and the performances and philosophohy of Allan Kaprow. With this in mind each iteration of Portable City, is a platform for something greater, an expression of scale and a study how interconnection can be used as a model for creating model for creating change. Many of the iterations of Portable City are time-based these events or actions are recorded through a photographic documentation, a web presence and re-representation of the actual experience.

This re-representation of experience or process is my exploration of a gallery based practice. This aspect of my practice and it has been influenced by the French cultural theorist, Nicolas Bourriard (Relational Aesthetics) and, it has also been been influenced by the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Art, in Relational Aesthetics, is seen as a state of encounter and the essence of humankind, purely trans-individual and made up of bonds that link individuals together in social forms which are invariably historical (cite from relational aesthetics). Bourriaud believes that art is made of the same material as social exchanges 35 Bourriard states that, Relational Art is located in human interactions and their social contexts. Its central themes Central are inter-subjectivity, being-together, the encounter and the collective elaboration of meaning, based in models of sociability, meetings, events, collaborations, games, festivals and places of conviviality.

You will begin to notice that the public iteration of my artistic practice fall into a models of socialbilty, collaboration and convival relations. As a young critic in the 90s, Nicholas Bourriaud used the term "relational art" to describe a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical departure human interactions and their social contexts.

Relational art bridges or blurs the differences between life and art and involves the public as co-creators of artworks;As a young critic in the 90s, Nicholas Bourriaud used the term "relational art" to describe a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical departure human interactions and their social contexts. Relational art bridges or blurs the differences between life and art and involves the public as co-creators of artworks.

An example of this aesthetic can be found in the work of the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, who became famous in 1992 when he made Untitled 1992 (Free). "Untitled 1992 was a artwork wherein Tiravanija emptied out the office of the 303 Gallery in Soho and installed a makeshift kitchen, complete with fridge, hot plates, rice steamers, tables, and stools. He then cooked Thai curry; anyone could drop in, serve him- or herself, and eat. For free".