Abstract

In 1968 the writer, activist and curator Lucy Lippard was in Argentina trying to organise an exhibition of dematerialised art in which all the exhibits fitted into a suitcase: the idea being that the suitcase would be taken from country to country by ‘idea artists’ using free airline tickets. In some ways Lippard’s version of portable art – that can be accessed in diverse geographical locations easily and relatively cheaply – has been superseded by the online distribution and exchange of network art through social platforms. Valuable as these exchanges undoubtedly are, perhaps something of the specificity of the local is being lost in the process. Can another version of Lippard’s concept of portable exhibitions and events be imagined and realised: one in which artworks are distributed globally and enacted locally? What does it mean if an artwork is ‘distributed’? What does it mean if it is ‘enacted’ locally? What form does the work take, and which aspects of it are portable?

• Kate Southworth iRes Research in Network Art, University College Falmouth, UK

Full text (PDF)  p. 501-506