In 1993, over drinks in Paris, Hans Ulrich Obrist and artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier conceived Do It – a venture which has gone on to breathe new life into the practice of art curation.
In 1993, over drinks in Paris, Hans Ulrich Obrist and artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier conceived Do It – a venture which has gone on to breathe new life into the practice of art curation.
Initially looking to render exhibition formats more flexible and open ended at a time of marked globalisation in the art world, Do It's pioneers came up with the idea of using scores or written instructions by artists as the starting point for exhibition making. To test the water, Obrist invited 13 artists to create their own instructions, which were then translated into nine different languages and published internationally as a book. What ensued was an extraordinary process of "call and response" as people produced and reacted to the instructions all over the world and the project took on a life of its own. Now, twenty years on, hundreds of artists have participated in Do It and more than fifty Do It exhibitions have been held – and to celebrate Obrist has created the brilliant, newly published Do It compendium. This includes an archive of artists instructions selected by Obrist, a number of essays contextualising the concept, documentation and photographs from the history of the exhibition and new instructions by 50 artists.
Here, to mark the compendium's release, we have chosen three of our favourite sets of instructions from Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois and David Lynch...
(Above) BOURGEOIS, Louise
Instruction (2002)
When you are walking, stop and smile at a stranger.
AI Weiwei
CCTV SPRAY (2012)
LYNCH, David
Do It: How To Make A Ricky Board (2012)
This board can be any size
you want.
The proportions are dictated by
four rows of five rickies.
There should be twenty rickies
in all.
Each ricky is, as nearly as
possible, exactly the same as
every other ricky.
The ricky can be an object or a
flat image.
The thing about the rickies is you
will see them change before your
eyes because you will give each
ricky a different name.
The names will be printed or
written under each ricky. Twenty
different names in all.
You will be amazed at the
different personalities that emerge
depending on the names you give.
Here is a poem:
Four rows of five
Your rickies come alive
Twenty is plenty
It isn't tricky
Just name each ricky
Even though they're all the same
The change comes from the name
Do It is published by Distributed Art Publishers and is available now.
Text by Daisy Woodward
