Talk by Mike Bill at Interdisziplinäres Symposium – Kunst als Erfahrung, Swiss Institute for Art Research
This presentation explores the potential of the queer- and affect-theoretical notion of texture for art-historical research. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (1950–2009) suggested using texture in historical research insofar as she understood it as a means of interrogating the significance of time-bound aesthetic qualities. Whether appearing in physical or literary spaces, texture, according to Sedgwick, provides insight into the historical conditions underlying conventions of taste.
As methodological means, this presentation argues, textures may counteract entrenched dualisms in art-historical writing. This will be illustrated through the example of the 1964 Swiss National Exhibition (Schweizerische Nationalausstellung) in Lausanne – known briefly as Expo 64. Rather than viewing the large sculptures presented at Expo 64 by Zoltán Kemény (1907–1965) and Jean Tinguely (1925–1991) as artistic positions appropriated by politics – and thereby reinforcing a one-dimensional opposition between the autonomous artwork and ideological aestheticization – addressing their textures shifts the focus on the projections the artworks’ surfaces have encountered. In the case of the textures of Kemény’s and Tinguely’s “abstract sculptures”, such projections and imaginaries may tell stories of futures characterized by freedom and economic success, as well as transmit warnings of the impending loss of control resulting from increasingly automated production processes.
7 – 8 November 2024
Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zurich