DO IT: MANUAL - Bourgeois & Koller

Louise Bourgeois

"Untitled"
In this project Burgeois tells the participant to simply stop and smile at a stranger while walking. Personally, I find this performance to be interesting. Everyone has smiled at a stranger at one point or another in their life. I think that everyone has their own reasons for why we do so, sometimes we smile because we've caught a stranger's eye and feel like it is the only thing to do so we don't seem rude. I think in most cases smiling at a stranger is an awkward act that most people do not do very often. Bourgeois's proposal makes the participant ponder and face the intimacy and maybe even discomfort that could be felt in that single moment. It's interesting to think about how that smile could effect someone's day or life. Maybe for some it would be something that could brighten up their day, while for others it may just creep them out. It seems like such a simple act and some might even wonder how this act is a form of art , but, imagine what would happen if everyone participated in this performance piece on a daily basis.

Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 and emigrated to the United States in 1938 and continued to study art. She began engraving and painting and then turned to sculpting. Her early works were typically made from wood and was very abstract. In the 1960s she started to use other media such as rubber, bronze, and stone. A majority of her pieces relate to her childhood and the relationship with her parents. She explored the relationship between men and women due as a result of the impact of her father’s affair. It wasn’t until the 70’s that she began to create performance art.

A very interesting work:
http://www.kemperart.org/permanent/works/BourgeoisSpider.asp


Julius Koller
"Untitled"

Koller's project asks the participant to cut out question marks from different newspapers and magazines. After doing so, the participant is asked to stick their cut outs onto different public places, such as posters and wherever they think would be most important. Like Bourgeois performance, I was drawn to this piece because it forces people to question their surroundings. Seeing a question mark randomly on the streets first makes you wonder why it is there and what it could mean. Ultimately, such questions would cause the viewer to go on to larger questions about their life and society.

Julius Koller was born in 1939 and is an active artist in Bratislava. He originated his idea of the “antihappening” in the 1960’s. Koller uses real objects and ordinary life as a basis for his projects. As a result his works take place in actual time. Koller’s goal is to make a person aware of their society and surroundings. Rather than creating a performance, Koller uses symbols to create an attitude about our reality. He typically incorporates the question mark but also uses text and different letters.

http://www.kontakt.erstebankgroup.net/report/stories/Issue20_07_In+memoriam+Julius+Koller/en