Relational Art

Art movement

Relational Aesthetics

Relational Aesthetics is an art movement that emerged in the 1990s, spearheaded by Nicolas Bourriaud, a renowned French curator and art critic. This movement recognized the growing use of performative and interactive techniques by contemporary artists, which relied on the responses of others – pedestrians, shoppers, casual observers turned participants.

Bourriaud viewed artists as facilitators rather than mere creators, considering art as a form of information exchange between the artist and the viewers. In this sense, the artist grants audiences the ability to access power and the means to enact change in the world.

The term “Relational Aesthetics” was first introduced in 1996, in the catalogue for the “Traffic” exhibition curated by Bourriaud at the CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux. It was further developed in Bourriaud’s 1998 book, titled “Esthétique relationnelle” (Relational Aesthetics). Within this concept, artworks create social environments in which people gather to participate in shared activities.

According to Bourriaud, the purpose of artworks is no longer to fabricate imaginary and utopian realities, but rather to serve as ways of living and models of action within the existing real world, no matter what scale the artist chooses.

One notable example of Relational Aesthetics is the artwork titled “Frenchising the Mona Lisa” by artist Amir Baradaran. In this immersive experience, visitors to the Louvre Museum in Paris were invited to view the Mona Lisa draped in a French flag, resembling a hijab through the use of an Augmented Reality application. This piece evokes paradoxes by alluding to the socially sanctioned veil that Mona Lisa wears, while also referencing the French law that prohibits women from wearing face-covering headgear, such as the niqāb, in public.

In Relational Art, the audience is envisioned as a community, as the artwork fosters intersubjective encounters rather than solely encouraging the interaction between a viewer and an object. Through these encounters, meaning is collectively developed, transcending individual consumption and enriching the collective experience.