VIVIAN REHBERG
ist Kunsthistorikerin und Kritikerin aus Paris.
Seit 2007 leitet sie den Bereich Critical Studies
und unterrichtet moderne und zeitgenössische
Kunstgeschichte an der Parsons School of Art
and Design in Paris. Von 2001 – 2004 war sie
Kuratorin für zeitgenössische Kunst am ARC /
Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris. Vivian
Rehberg gründete das Journal of Visual Culture und publiziert regelmäßig in Magazinen wie Art
in America, Artforum und frieze.
10.30 Uhr
Why Baudelaire Was Wrong about Sculpture
Charles Baudelaire titled a section of his review of the 1846 Paris Salon »Why Sculpture Is Boring«, followed by the opening line: The origin of sculpture is lost in the mists of time; thus it is a Carib art. Emphasizing the purportedly »savage« origins of sculpture, Baudelaire derided the lack of historical consciousness of the sculptors of his day, and hailed painting as the more authentic medium of modernity.
As expanded and pluralistic as contemporary sculptural practice appears, the works we identify as sculpture today display an acute awareness of their aesthetic and historical precedents, as well as of accompanying critical and theoretical discourses. This paper will explore how contemporary sculptural practice navigates its own historicity, specifically with respect to the object, and how it encroaches on other mediums, specifically that of the moving image, in order to argue, contre Baudelaire, that sculpture today is many things – except boring.