Investigating spatial features through a linear ritual

Lumiar Cité, Lissabon, Portugal, 2011

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Lumiar Cité ︎

Starting from the exhibition space and including the intervention remaining from the previous show, Max Ockborn conceptually explores ideas such as the integration of space in the problematics of art pieces and draws a critical parallel between the modus operandi of artists and spiritual and religious rituals. Rather than comparing Art with Religion, he questions the work methods of artists as self-sufficient ways of generating sense and meaning. Max Ockborn draws attention to details that already exist in a space, and this space defies the limits of functionality for exhibiting art, emphasizing these details as final objects, despite the fact that they were not intended to become final and to continue beyond the construction period, such as the rudimentary cement cover for the wiring. The artist erased the signs that were still remaining that this space was still unfinished, such as the blue lines to guide future electrical installations, plumbing, etc. The space was turned into something ‘definite’. At a time when the white cube is no longer a mandatory paradigm and it is no longer shocking for an unfinished space to host exhibitions, an approach based on the space itself to critically theorize on artistic production has become possible. The bow artifact in the first room suggests the possibility of a belief in something intangible. A metaphor of a supposedly more formal artistic proposal. This apparently pagan symbol also reinforces the idea of enlightening through ritual – a linear ritual.
Text by: Bruno Leitão