Time To Play: Action And Interaction In Contempororary Art Hardcover

Katarzyna Zimna

Play art' or interactive art is becoming a central concept in the contemporary art world, disrupting the traditional role of passive observance usually assumed by audiences, allowing them active participation. The work of 'play' artists - from Carsten Holler's 'Test Site' at the Tate Modern to Gabriel Orozco's 'Ping Pond Table' - must be touched, influenced and experienced; the gallery-goer is no longer a spectator but a co-creator. Time to Play explores the role of play as a central but neglected concept in aesthetics and a model for ground-breaking modern and postmodern experiments that have intended to blur the boundary between art and life. Moving freely between disciplines, Katarzyna Zimna links the theory and history of 20th and 21st century art with ideas developed within play, game and leisure studies, and the philosophical theories of Kant, Gadamer and Derrida, to critically engage with current discussion on the role of the artist, viewers, curators and their spaces of encounter.She combines a consideration of the philosophical implications of play with the examination of how it is actually used in modern and postmodern art - looking at Dada, Surrealism, Fluxus and Relational Aesthetics. Focusing mainly on process-based art, this bold book proposes a fresh approach - reaching beyond classical cultural theories of play.

1780763034

9.78178E+12

English

I.B.Tauris And Co. Ltd

2/9/2015

224

Katarzyna Zimna is an independent artist, researcher and book illustrator based in London and Lodz, Poland. Her work has featured in exhibitions across Europe. She teaches at the Institute of Architecture of Textiles at the Technical University of Lodz.

Katarzyna Zimna's Time to Play is a most welcome contribution to art theory and aesthetic theory - The traditional and familiar notion of the 'work of art' is effectively deconstructed and shown to be possible only on the condition of an original and less familiar notion of the "play of art". Zimna's text is one that will be of great interest to all kinds of artists, spectators and curators.' Dr.Malcolm Barnard, Senior Lecturer inVisual Culture, Loughborough University.