Collective Exhibition for a Single Body – The Private Score – The Licence – Pierre Bal-Blanc

A score of performative gestures, drawn from the conceptual art and body art scenes from Central and Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 1980s.
Collective Exhibition for a Single Body is a project initiated by French curator Pierre Bal-Blanc in the context of documenta 14 in Athens. The present book summarizes his research on how body, language and value intersect. Bal Blanc extract gestures and body situations mostly from conceptual artworks created in Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 80s. These gestures, aiming at being interpreted and repeated, are assembled in a score to be performed, pushing the boundaries between visual arts and choreography. The book documents how the score was performed in several public spaces, from the low-cost supermarket that has replaced the Generali Foundation in its location in Vienna, to a social service office in Leuven, Belgium (as part of the “Playground” festival). Collective Exhibition for a Single Body is also a template for a licence that could frame how to value a score, a gesture, and its embodiment.

Works by Milan Adamčiak, Geta Brătescu, Anna Daučíková, Valie Export, Stano Filko, Tomislav Gotovac, Sanja Iveković, Anna Jermolaewa, Július Koller, Jiří Kovanda, Katalin Ladik, Simon Leung, Karel Miler, Paul Neagu, Manuel Pelmuş, Petr Štembera, Mladen Stilinović, Sven Stilinović, Slaven Tolj, Goran Trbuljak.