The Crippling Power Of The Institution; Tate Steps (Power Structures Series) (2019), GCGCA(i)
Tate Steps
Power Structures Series
Tate Britain, London
21 Jun - 22 Sep 2019
‘A line of action can be weakened by emergent forces in the surrounding field'
- Vito Acconci
‘The behaviour of the Surrealist self … is governed by the refusal to submit to the constraints of the social order. The loss of practical possibilities of action that is caused by the lack of a social position creates a vacuum, ennui. From the Surrealist perspective, ennui is not viewed negatively but rather as the decisive condition for the transformation of everyday reality which is what the Surrealists are after.’
- Peter Burger
The steps to Tate Britain are the stage for this exhibition, where the psychical effect of the status of being ‘outside’ the art institution is physically expressed in the performance entitled 'The Crippling Power Of The Institution', part on an ongoing Power Structures Series. It consists of the continual failure to ascend the stairs to Tate Britain. It is not clear whether this is merely a ‘performance’, or whether it represents a real incapacity to enter this art institutional space.
The work will be performed on the hour every hour from the time the art institution opens until it closes. Duration of performances vary.
Critical Textual Resource
Vito Acconci, Some Notes on Activity and Performance (1970)
(Gianni Colombo): Retroactive/Retrospective Art Historical Reference; Tate Steps (Power Structures Series) (2019), GCGCA(i)
