The perception of an artwork

Aesthetic
Historical
Social

Bourriaud, Nicolas (1998 / 2002). Relational Aesthetics. Translated by Simon Pleasance & Fronza Wood with the participation of Mathieu Copeland. Paris: Les presses du réel. S.46.

These ›relational‹ procedures (invitations, casting sessions, meetings, convivial and user-friendly areas, appointments, etc. ) are merely a repertory of common forms, vehicles through which particular lines of thought and personal relationships with the world are developed. The subsequent form that each artist gives to this relational production is not unalterable, either. These artists perceive their work from a threefold viewpoint, at once aesthetic (how is it to be ›translated‹ in material terms?), historical (how is to be incorporated in a set of artistic references?) and social (how is to find a coherent position with regard to the current state of production and social relations?). These activities evidently acquire their formal and theoretical marks in Conceptual Art, in Fluxus and in Minimal Art, but they simply use these like a vocabulary, a lexical basis.