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Relational Aesthetics - Critique of

Culture and Radical Research of Social
Circumstance

August 11, 2015 So what is relational aesthetics

aesthetics? When it comes to the
reception of art nowadays we tend to be more confused that
Anika D. compelled by the artworks showcased at galleries and the
museums. More than often, we are not sure if we should perceive
a certain piece as the work of art at all. We tend to stand in front
of the artwork, nodding in approval, pretending we understand what
the artist is presenting us with, searching for those terms and
theories we know we have somewhere in the deepest corners of our
memory, relics of our academic education which will explain the
particular work of art that we didn’t consider as one in the first place.
And don’t pretend you haven’t done this at some point, avoiding to
 look like a fool in a group of friends who are as clueless as you are,
but follow the same logic, and do not accept the idea of a failure in
understanding. Is everything art nowadays or it never was art, but it
came to be as soon as we decided to see it that way and invent
improved theoretical concepts to cover the profanity of many artistic
endeavors? One of those concepts is definitely the strongly debated
idea of relational aesthetics.

Maurizio Cattelan - All, 2013.

Nicolas Bourriaud and the Concept

of Relational Aesthetics
Relational aesthetics and relational art were introduced by the
French art critic and curator Nicolas Bourriaud in his book of the
same title from 1998. The term was coined two years before, in the
catalogue for the group exhibition called Traffic featuring Jason
Rhoades, Gabriel Orozco, Douglas Gordon, Maurizio Cattelan, Vanessa
Beecroft, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Victoria Bradbury among others.
The exhibition was curated by Bourriaud and the aim was to present
recent developments in interactive conceptual art practices which
will later be recognized as relational art. Nicolas Bourriaud invented
the term in order to distinguish this form of art from its
predecessors, and to establish a theoretical apparatus which will
explain the new art practice, not readable through the old theoretical
discourses.
 Relational Aesthetics Definition
Nicolas Bourriaud defines relational aesthetics as 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”. In different words,
relational aesthetics is used to describe all those artistic practices
that tend to erase the line which separates spectators from the work
of art. The artist is merely a catalyst who replicates existing social
environments for people to participate in. This social event can
practically include any profane activity from our everyday lives like
drinking coffee, having dinner or booking a hotel room. The whole
concept depends on the artists’ abilities to recreate living and real
environment which we experience daily, and not to display his
subjective vision of the objects and social situations. The aim is to
provide “interactive, user-friendly and relational concepts”, rather
than the actual works of art that we are used to seeing, visual
representations of objects and ideas. The concept opposes the
modernist and traditional aesthetic notions of beauty, orientation
towards the essential rather than real, and object-based art.

Rirkrit Tiravanija - Untitled (Free) exhibition recreated at MoMA in 2012. Photo via MoMA

Relational Art – Examples

Relational art deals with intersubjective relationships and it tends to
look like a social experiment. But what is the final goal of this artistic
practice and how is it different than other forms of conceptual or
performative art, also concerned with the social relations rather than
the objects themselves? We are pretty much used to the notion of
today's art practices being interactive, encouraging the visitors to
actively participate in the construction of meaning, and sometimes
the artwork itself. But what is the distinction between relational art
and other similar practices?

Meet the Relational Art Practitioners

Relational art seems like an umbrella term for all those unusual
artistic practices which are questionable even by those who support
some radical conceptual movements. While defining relational art,
Nicolas Bourriaud gives few examples. The true representative of
relational art in his opinion is Rirkrit Tiravanija whose first solo show
in 1992 consisted only of a kitchen set and the artist cooking Thai
dinner for the visitors. This communal experience of eating became
the paradigm of relational art, a praxis which would not be seen as
artistic in any other circumstances. There was no artwork on display,
no big political issue to be addressed, just people enjoying the food
in the replica of the ordinary kitchen space. However, Nicolas
Bourriaud saw it as revolutionary. This participatory potential and the
sense of community were seen as the answer to alienation in our
postmodern society and relational art came to be the name for all
those similar projects which tend to bring people together by
recreating environments where people enjoy the shared activities.
Other artist he includes in this self-proclaimed movement are
Philippe Parreno who invites people to pursue their hobbies on a
factory line during the May Day, or Vanessa Beecroft who dresses her
female models while the visitors observe from the doorway.
Douglas Gordon - Play Dead; Real Time (this way, that way, the other way), 2003. Photo via tate.org.uk

Critical Reception of the Term and the

Debate
But, there are some major issues concerning the relational aesthetics
as presented by Nicolas Bourriaud. The reception of the term was
rather controversial and it remains till this day, even when the term is
officially accepted in today's art circles. First of all, the concept was
never really embraced by the artists even those who are usually
labeled as relational. Secondly, the differences in visual language and
political agenda of those artists singled out as relational by Bourriaud
are sometimes so great and relational aesthetics turns out to
unsubstantiated when it comes to the particular works of art.
Another big issue which many art critics tend to address is that while
promoting performativity, open-endedness and focus on real and
existing while discarding utopian, Bourriaud and those artists who
work by his postulates preserve the status quo rather than
addressing some important problems in the global post-modern
society. They do not change and improve the social relations but
dwell in the conformity and compromise. In Michel de Certeau’s
terms, these artists can be seen as those who use ‘tactics’ in the
given environment, rather than trying to be ones who make
‘strategies’.
Gabriel Orozco - Asterisms, 2012. Image via moviespix.com

New Art Chapter?

The term of relational aesthetics is disputed and questioned now as
it was in the nineties, most notably in the work of Claire Bishop.
Though it’s a fashionable term many scholars and art historians
consider it unnecessary and argue whether it should be discarded or
at least reevaluated. Even artists reject it more than often, especially
those whose work is rooted in activism. These experiments in
sociability do not seem to achieve the outlined goals and look more
like spectacles and exhibitionism rather than radical social practice.

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Featured image:

Vanessa Beecroft and Kanye West - Flaunt performance - Art Basel,

2013. Photo via arrestedmotion.com

Book quotes from Nicolas Bourriaud's Relational Aesthetics, 1998.

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