From Object to Event

This chapter explores the “dematerialization” of artistic practice through new, collaborative methodologies during the 1960s and 1970s. This period marked the shift from an object- to an event-based aesthetic paradigm with significant implications for contemporary art. The chapter contrasts two modalities of dematerialization that occur during this period. On the one hand, readers encounter a process of “de-transcendentalization” in the performances of figures such as Adrian Piper, whose work is concerned with forms of critical insight generated in the interstices between self and other. And on the other hand, readers can identify a corresponding form of “re-transcendentalization” as the locus of critical insight is transposed to the consciousness of the artist, exemplified by Joseph Kosuth. The chapter explores the tensions between these positions as they unfold in the contrasting methodologies of two experimental film collectives working during the late 1960s (Dziga Vertov Group and the Medvedkin Group).