MAKING TIME: Jens Hoffmann

The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium MAKING TIME: Art Across Gallery, Screen, and Stage taking place from April 19-21, 2012. Participants have been invited to respond to the prompt “what does the phrase 'time-based art' mean to you?” in advance of the event. This posting is by Jens Hoffmann, Director of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Photo Credit: Bob Adler

 I would like to offer another mode of thinking about performance and the exhibition that is less involved with the various structures of the art world and more in consideration of the experience of the exhibition and the artwork itself. This is to say my thinking around the subject of the conference is informed by a set of parameters located quite specifically within the exhibition itself and my practice has very much developed in consideration of what kind of experiences can be made possible within that space. I would like to introduce Brecht's idea of the Dramatic Construction to the practice of exhibition making and to this discussion to see in how far we can talk about the visit of an exhibition as a performative experience.