do it (home) at the Samek Art Museum
do it (home) at the Samek Art Museum
October 27, 2020
About
Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist
Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, do it began in Paris in 1993 as a conversation between Obrist and the artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier. Obrist was concerned with how exhibition formats could be rendered more flexible and open-ended. This discussion led to the question of whether a show could take “scores,” or written instructions by artists, as a point of departure, each of which could be interpreted anew every time they were enacted. To test the idea, Obrist invited 12 artists to send instructions, which were then translated into 9 different languages and circulated internationally as a book.
Nearly 20 years later after the initial conversation took place, do it has been featured in at least 50 different locations worldwide, including Australia, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Costa Rica, Slovenia and Uruguay. The driving force behind the exhibition is aptly summarized in the words of Marcel Duchamp, who states that “art is a game between all people of all periods.” He is only one of several predecessors to have shaped the modus operandi of this exhibition, which also draws from Conceptual and Minimalist art of the 1960s and 1970s as well as Fluxus practices. Each do it exhibition is uniquely site-specific because it engages the local community in a dialogue that responds to and adds a new set of instructions, while it remains global in the scope of its ever-expanding repertoire. This also means that the generative and accumulative aspects of do it’s ongoing presentation are less concerned with notions of the “reproduction” or materiality of the artworks than with revealing the nuances of human interpretation in its various permutations and iterations. In this way, do it is able to bridge the gaps between the temporalities of past, present and future.
This open exhibition model has become the longest-running and most far-reaching exhibition to ever take place, giving new meaning to the concept of the “Exhibition in Progress.” In addition to the production of an on-line version of do it created by Obrist in conjunction with e-flux in 2004, other versions that do it has grown to encompass include do it (museum), do it (home), do it (TV), do it (seminar), do it (outside), do it (party), as well as some anti-do its, a philosophy do it and most recently a UNESCO children’s do it.
In building off the 1997 collaboration of ICI with Obrist to create a do it that took place in 25 cities across North America, a new version of the exhibition, which marks the 20th anniversary of this landmark project, presents the largest selection of instructional works to date—including 50 newly commissioned pieces from artists selected by Obrist and ICI. Organized around the instructions submitted by artists, venues will select at least 20 instructional works to present from a list of 250.
do it is a traveling exhibition conceived and curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, and organized by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York. The exhibition and the accompanying publication were made possible, in part by grants from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and with the generous support from Project Perpetual and ICI’s International Forum and Board of Trustees.
do it on
Updates
WATCH NOW! do it (australia) Interview Marathon with HUO
On July 12, 2020 Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, hosted a marathon live interview via Zoom, with 17 of the 18 artists and creative practitioners who contributed to Kaldor Public Art Project 36: do it (australia).
July 12, 2020 @ Online
SUPPORT, TOAST, DO IT!
A benefit to support curatorial practice and independent thinking.
June 25, 2020 @ ZOOM
Hans Ulrich Obrist and do it Profiled in The New Yorker
Hans Ulrich Obrist and the ICI traveling exhibition do it are profiled extensively in the current issue of The New Yorker magazine.
December 2, 2014
do it (short)
An animated short about Hans Ulrich Obrist’s ongoing exhibition do it, narrated by Reggie Watts.
April 28, 2014 - May 5, 2014 @ Everywhere
Scores for Installations: Conversation with Robert Fleck
In 1996, three years after the inception of do it, curator Robert Fleck interviewed Hans Ulrich Obrist on the impetus for organizing the generative exhibition. Obrist shares his thoughts on the first iterations of the exhibition and the unending potential for future versions.
March 17, 2013
do it at e-flux
Throughout its duration at e-flux, the contents of do it have grown exponentially to include new instructions, essays, interviews as well as feedback from the audience. Please continue to the e-flux website to find out more about the history of the project.
Curator
Hans Ulrich Obrist
Hans Ulrich Obrist (b. 1968, Zürich, Switzerland) is Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London, and Senior Artistic Advisor of The Shed in New York. Prior to this, he was the Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show ‘World Soup (The Kitchen Show)’ in 1991, he has curated more than 300 exhibitions.
Obrist has lectured internationally at academic and art institutions, and is a contributing editor to the magazines Artforum, AnOther Magazine, 032C, a regular contributor to Mousse and Kaleidoscope and he writes columns for Das Magazin and Weltkunst. In 2011 he received the CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence, and in 2015 he was awarded the International Folkwang Prize for his commitment to the arts.
His recent publications include Mondialité, Conversations in Mexico,Ways of Curating, The Age of Earthquakes with Douglas Coupland and Shumon Basar, and Lives of The Artists, Lives of The Architects.
Artists
Marina Abramović, Etel Adnan, Sophia Al Maria, Pawel Althamer, Amalia Pica, Carl Andre, Kathryn Andrews, Uri Aran, Cory Arcangel, John Armleder, Robert Ashley, David Askevold, Ed Atkins, Tarek Atoui, Lutz Bacher, Darren Bader, Nairy Baghramian, John Baldessari, Matthew Barney, Yto Barrada, Robert Barry, Gianfranco Baruchello, Jérôme Bel, Kim Beom, Bernadette Corporation, Gerry Bibby, Dara Birnbaum, Mel Bochner, John Bock, Christian Boltanski, Iñaki Bonillas, Louise Bourgeois, Geta Bratescu, Joan Brossa, Daniel Buren, Waltercio Caldas, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Mircea Cantor, Antonio Caro, Maurizio Cattelan, John Chamberlain, Paul Chan, Boris Charmatz, Chu Yun, Jay Chung, Hélène Cixous, Lygia Clark, Amy E. Cohen and Francisco J. Varela, Douglas Coupland, Meg Cranston, Critical Art Ensemble, Minerva Cuevas, Jeroen de Rijke and Willem de Rooij, Tacita Dean, Wilson Díaz, Diller + Scofidio, do it tv, Trisha Donnelly, Jimmie Durham, Maria Eichorn, Olafur Eliasson, Elmgreen & Dragset, Tracey Emin, Ayse Erkmen, Cerith Wyn Evans, Mathias Faldbakken, Cao Fei, Feng Mengbo, Fischli & Weiss, Claire Fontaine, William Forsythe, Simone Forti, Hreinn Fridfinnsson, Yona Friedman, Simon Fujiwara, Theaster Gates, Paul-Armand Gette, Jef Geys, Gilbert & George, Simryn Gill, Liam Gillick, Édouard Glissant, Leon Golub, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Douglas Gordon, Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Konstantin Grcic, Joseph Grigely, Ulrike Grossarth, Gu Dexin, Marie-Ange Guilleminot, Shilpa Gupta, Anna Halprin, Richard Hamilton, Harsha NS, Mona Hatoum, Federico Herrero, Anthony Hill, Maria Teresa Hincapie, Roger Hiorns, Damien Hirst, Shere Hite, Nicholas Hlobo, Carsten Höller, Jonathan Horowitz, Hu Fang, Huang Yong Ping, Pierre Huyghe, Fabrice Hybert, Cristina Iglesias, Joan Jonas, Ilya Kabakov, Stephen Kaltenbach, Allan Kaprow, Mike Kelley, Hassan Khan, Ben Kinmont, Ragnar Kjartansson, Alison Knowles, Aaron Koblin, Terence Koh, Jiří Kolář, Julius Koller, Koo Jeong-A, Surasi Kusolwong, Suzanne Lacy, David Lamelas, Adriana Lara, Bertrand Lavier, Xavier Le Roy, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Sol LeWitt, Klara Liden, Erik van Lieshout, Lucy R. Lippard, Liu Ding, Liu Wei, Thomas Lommée, Aníbal López, Lee Lozano, Lu Chunsheng, Sarah Lucas, David Lynch, Jorge Macchi, Tobias Madison, Mark Manders, Christian Marclay, Enzo Mari, Eva Marisaldi, Chris Marker, Helen Marten, Paul McCarthy, Cildo Meireles, Jonas Mekas, Annette Messager, Olaf Metzel, John Miller, Andrei Monastyrski, Robert Morris, Valérie Mréjen, Otto Mühl, Eileen Myles, Jean-Luc Nancy, Deimantas Narkevičius, Ernesto Neto, Rivane Neuenschwander, Max Neuhaus, Albert Oehlen, Roman Ondák, Yoko Ono, Füsun Onur, Damián Ortega, Fernando Ortega, Clifford Owens, Nam June Paik, Pak Sheung-Chueng, Charlemagne Palestine, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Lygia Pape, Nicolás Paris, Philippe Parreno, Marko Peljhan, Cesare Pietroiusti, Adrian Piper, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Marjetica Potrč, Cedric Price, Raqs Media Collective, Casey E. B. Reas, David Reed, Tobias Rehberger, Pedro Reyes, Jason Rhoades, Pipilotti Rist, David Robbins, Adrián Villar Rojas, Ugo Rondinone, Martha Rosler, Ed Ruscha, Claude Rutault, Anri Sala, Eszter Salamon, Tomás Saraceno, Julião Sarmento, Dimitar Sasselov, Peter Saville, Tomas Schmit, Thomas Schütte, Tino Sehgal, Sejima Kazuyo, Hassan Sharif, Jim Shaw, Rupert Sheldrake, Shimabuku, Gabriel Sierra, Alexandre Singh, Andreas Slominski, Michael Smith, Michael E. Smith, Nancy Spero, Bruce Sterling, Mladen Stilinović, Sturtevant, Hugo Suter, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tone Yasunou, Mario Garcia Torres, Ryan Trecartin, Rosemarie Trockel, Agnes Varda, Anton Vidokle, Tris Vonna-Michell, Franz Erhard Walther, Wang Jianwei, Wang Wei, Hannah Weinberger, Lawrence Weiner, Ai Weiwei, Richard Wentworth, Franz West, Emmett Williams, Gil Wolman, Erwin Wurm, Xu Tan, Xu Zhen, Yang Fudong, Zheng Guogu,
Touring Schedule
Univeristy of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez
Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
August 26, 2021 - October 31, 2021
National YoungArts Foundation
Miami, FL, United States
October 22, 2020 - October 22, 2021
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL, United States
October 1, 2020 - December 15, 2020
A4 Art Museum
Chengdu, China
September 26, 2020 - December 6, 2020
The New Gallery, Austin Peay State University
Clarksville, TN, United States
September 30, 2019 - December 6, 2019
Gränslandet Festival
Stockholm, Sweden
August 16, 2019 - August 17, 2019
Hunter East Harlem Gallery
New York, New York, United States
April 12, 2019 - June 7, 2019
Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University
Halifax, Canada
December 4, 2018 - December 15, 2018
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Kalamazoo, MI, United States
October 27, 2018 - March 3, 2019
Centro Cultural Parque de España
Rosario, Argentina
October 26, 2018 - December 16, 2018
Supercurator. Contemporary Curatorial Thought Foundation.
Łódź, Poland
October 4, 2018 - October 28, 2018
Art Gallery at Evergreen, Evergreen Cultural Centre
Coquitlam, BC, Canada
July 14, 2018 - September 2, 2018
Sånafest
Hølen, Norway
June 26, 2018 - August 26, 2018
Clay Center for Arts and Sciences of West Virginia
Charleston, WV, United States
March 3, 2018 - April 29, 2018
Mobile Museum of Art
Mobile, Alabama, United States
January 26, 2018 - July 1, 2018
Pike School of Art
McComb, Mississippi, United States
November 11, 2017 - February 25, 2018
220 Cultura Contemporánea
Córdoba, Argentina
August 18, 2017 - November 5, 2017
Ilmin Museum of Art
Seoul, South Korea
April 28, 2017 - July 9, 2017
Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto
Porto, Portugal
March 24, 2017 - June 23, 2017
Montclair Art Museum
Montclair, NJ, United States
September 9, 2016 - January 1, 2017
Ulrich Museum of Art
Wichita, KS, United States
April 23, 2016 - August 28, 2016
Blue Star Contemporary
San Antonio, TX, United States
March 3, 2016 - May 8, 2016
Art Museum of the University of Memphis
Memphis, TN, United States
March 1, 2016 - May 10, 2016
Frac des pays de la Loire / HAB Galerie
Nantes, France
February 5, 2016 - April 17, 2016
Galerija Umjetnina
Split, Croatia
January 30, 2016 - December 31, 2016
Galerie de l’UQAM
Montréal, Québec, Canada
January 14, 2016 - February 20, 2016
Verge Center for the Arts
Sacramento, California, United States
January 9, 2016 - March 20, 2016
Tallinna Kunstihoone
Tallinn, Estonia
November 24, 2015 - January 10, 2016
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH, United States
October 21, 2015 - November 19, 2015
Kunsthal Aarhus
Aarhus, Denmark
October 2, 2015 - November 29, 2015
NuMu – El Nuevo Museo de Arte Contemporáneo
Guatemala City, Guatemala
August 8, 2015 - October 18, 2015
Kunsthal Rotterdam
Rotterdam, Netherlands
July 4, 2015 - August 30, 2015
Napa Valley Museum
Yountville, CA, United States
June 19, 2015 - August 30, 2015
KKW Kunst Kraft Werk
Leipzig, Germany
May 22, 2015 - July 9, 2015
Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art
Adelaide, Australia
February 13, 2015 - April 24, 2015
Denler Art Gallery
Saint Paul, MN, United States
October 16, 2014 - November 13, 2014
The Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design
Philadelphia, PA, United States
September 13, 2014 - December 6, 2014
Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town
Cape Town, South Africa
September 4, 2014 - September 13, 2014
The Episcopal Academy
Newtown Square, PA, United States
September 3, 2014 - April 3, 2015
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture
Moscow, Russia
May 1, 2014 - July 6, 2014
Musée de la danse
Rennes, France
April 1, 2014 - May 17, 2014
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
Salt Lake City, UT, United States
January 17, 2014 - May 31, 2014
Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina
Prishtina, Kosovo
November 15, 2013 - January 14, 2014
Handwerker Gallery
Ithaca, NY, United States
September 30, 2013 - November 1, 2013
Samek Art Gallery
Lewisburg, PA, United States
September 23, 2013 - December 12, 2013
Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester, United Kingdom
July 5, 2013 - September 22, 2013
MU artspace
Eindhoven, Netherlands
May 17, 2013 - July 19, 2013
tranzit
Budapest, Hungary
May 17, 2013 - May 19, 2013
Gund Gallery at Kenyon College
Gambier, OH, United States
May 12, 2013 - August 25, 2013
Socrates Sculpture Park
New York, NY, United States
May 12, 2013 - July 7, 2013
Booking Info
Number of artists or artists groups: 250
Number of works: 250
Space required: extremely flexible, though at least 1,000 square feet is recommended
For additional information, as well as to check specific dates of availability, contact Becky Nahom at 212.254.8200 x 205, or becky@curatorsintl.org.