Art in Ruins explained

Art in Ruins was formed in 1984 as a collaborative interventionist practice in art and architecture, staging exhibitions and publishing texts, by Hannah Vowles and Glyn Banks.^{[1] [2] [3]}

History and practice

Art in Ruins, based in Bloomsbury, London, uses 1960s conceptual art strategies utilized by Art & Language and Gilbert and George.^[3] Works include Trust Us (1997) and We Like You (1995).^[3] Their reaction to current art is "iconoclastic"^[4] with "a sort of supersensitivity to the politics of art."^[5] They curated the exhibition Our Wonderful Culture (St George's Crypt, Bloomsbury 1995) and collaborated with Stewart Home, Ed Baxter, and others on Ruins of Glamour, Glamour of Ruins (Chisenhale Gallery 1986)^[6] and Desire in Ruins (Transmission Gallery, Glasgow 1987).^{[7] [8] [9]}

Since the early 1990s, Art in Ruins have been satirising self-expression and focusing on art's economic basis.^[10] Like General Idea and Group Material, Art in Ruins may be a group "but they are first and foremost a demolition squad whose target is the last vestiges of value........more than a name" Art in Ruins "is a whole programme."^[11]

Their work has been exhibited in major cities throughout Europe.^{[12] [13]} They have been Visiting Professors at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. In 1991, Art in Ruins were awarded the DAAD Künstlerprogramm Berlin Stipendium. An exhibition concerning Third World Debt and migration entitled Conceptual Debt was shown at the DAAD Galerie Berlin^[14] followed by the discursive event on art activism "trap" with Stephan Geene and Büro Bert at Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin in 1993.^{[15] [16]}

Art in Ruins has been in limbo since 2001. This "silence" is the subject of an artist's project^{[17] [18]} and it has also been the subject of two editions of Wavelength arts programme on the community radio station Resonance FM.^{[19] [20]} Their website is at Art in Ruins

Art in Ruins themselves have said: "it may be that it is our extremely visible failure to be indexed in the recent history of the dominant culture that is our greatest success."^[21]

Further reading

• Book: David Thorp. David Thorp. Vampire Value . London . 1989 . The Showroom.
• Book: Art in Ruins . New Work . London . 1991 . . 78371071.
• Book: Blandine Chavannes . Resistances: Absalon, Art in Ruins, Véronique Joumard, Serge Kliaving : Poitiers, Musée Sainte-Croix, 16 Mars-15 mai 1990 . Poitiers . 1990 . Musée Sainte Croix . 2-903015-10-4 . 81658785.
• Art in Ruins . The Seduction of Resistant Virgins: Art in Ruins on Art & Language / Art & Language Reply . Frieze . London . 1991 . Pilot Issue 0. Article commissioned by Matthew Slotover
• Book: Mirjam Weston . Conceptual Debt . Arnhem . 1992 . Gemeentemuseum Arnhem . 90-72861-12-4.
• Art in Ruins . Appearances are Against Us . Camera Austria . Graz, Austria . 1994 . 47/48 . Manfred Willman . 1015-1915 . 16 May 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161022224126/http://artinruins.net/appearancesareagainstus/ . 22 October 2016 . dead .
• Nic Clear . Recent History . Architectures of the Near Future . Architectural Design . London . Wiley & Son . September 2009 . 92–95 . 978-0-470-69955-3.
• Art in Ruins . The Triumph of Culture . RIBA Journal . London . Atom Publishing . January 2010 . 1463-9505 . 36–39. https://web.archive.org/web/20110715181914/http://www.ribajournal.com/index.php/feature/article/the_triumph_of_culture_JAN10/
• Art in Ruins . The Triumph of Culture . Arthur Kroker . Arthur Kroker . Marilouise Kroker . CTheory.net . Victoria, Canada . University of Victoria . March 2011 .
• Book: Boris Gorelik . Incredible Tretchikoff: Life of an Artist and Adventurer . New York. Art/Books . 2013 . 268 . 9781908970084.
• Book: Antony Hudek . The Object . Massachusetts, USA . MIT Press . 2014 . 9780262525763 . registration .

External links

• Art in Ruins

Notes and References

1. Book: Glyn Banks and Hannah Vowles. New Realism: From the museum of ruined intentions. London. Gimpel Fils. 1987. 19809582.
2. Book: Watson, Gray . Art in Ruins . London . Institute of Contemporary Arts . 1986 . 0-905263-06-5 . 22669762.
3. [Alex Coles (art critic)|Alex Coles]
4. [Michael Corris]
5. Dave Beech. Art Monthly, London, July/August 1998.
6. Web site: Chisenhale Gallery Archive . 15 May 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171006112719/http://chisenhale.org.uk/archive/exhibitions/index.php?id=148 . 6 October 2017 . dead .
7. Web site: Festival of Plagiarism.
8. Web site: Ruins of Glamour/Glamour of Ruins.
9. Web site: London Art Tripping: A Psychogeographical Excursion.
10. Jonathan Jones. The Guardian, London, 15 December 1999.
11. [Frank Perrin]
12. Web site: Krieg.
13. Web site: Radikale Bilder.
14. Book: Irit Rogoff . Irit Rogoff . Terra Infirma: Geography's Visual Culture . London and New York . Routledge . 2000 . 0-415-09616-2. pp 56-60.
15. Book: Matthias Michalka . to expose, to show, to demonstrate, to inform, to offer: Artistic Practices around 1990 . Cologne . Walter Konig . 2015 . 9783-86335-813-6.
16. Web site: Former West Research Seminar: Art and the Social - Exhibitions of Contemporary Art in the 1990s.
17. Web site: Weinmayr. Eva . 2010 . I was wondering what the silence was about . December 8, 2014.
18. Web site: Weinmayr . Eva . 2010 . (pause) 21 scenes concerning the silence of Art in Ruins . December 8, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140407043847/http://occasionalpapers.org/?page_id=668 . 7 April 2014 . dead .
19. Web site: Destruction in Art part 8. 29 December 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20110826021843/http://resonancearchive1.org.uk/audio/wavelength/2010/wavelength17Sep10.mp3. 26 August 2011. dead.
20. Web site: Ed Baxter on Art in Ruins. 29 December 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20110826021358/http://resonancearchive1.org.uk/audio/wavelength/2010/wavelength17Dec10.mp3. 26 August 2011. dead.
21. Web site: Trust Us. An Unpublished Project for Frieze . Art in Ruins and Unknown Stranger . 1994 . Occasional Papers, London .