The Art of Installation
An art installation is a three-dimensional piece of visual art, often created for a specific place (in situ) and designed to change the perception of space.
The history of installations :
The art of installation revealed in the 60s and 70s. It is characterized by the ephemeral or permanent occupation of a given space that can be indoor or outdoor.
Necessarily based on the interactivity and the dynamic perception of the viewer, the installation art is considered sometimes as an art in which the spectator's participation is solicited.
The installation is not only solicited via the gaze and the observation, it is often immersive:
because it envelops the viewer in an imaginary space to offers him a new sensory experiences.
Different techniques of expression and representation, such as painting, sculptures or objects… can take place in this art.
Origins of the nomination :
The word installation come from “install” from medieval
latin « Installare ».
Put a dignitary in a stall
Put in an ecclesiastical charge (XV)
Put in one place (XVIth)
Install a house (XIX)
Origins of this art :
If one sought to trace what are, in art, the sources and the deep roots of what one covers today by the name of installation,
one would probably have to go back very far. Until, for example,
the cribs and paintings of mystical spaces such as churches that, without ceasing to "paint" and while continuing to offer the viewer in the context of a frontal vision, already tend to leave the frame and to penetrate the surrounding space.
All that then comes from a form of theatricalization of the visual arts contributed, in the course of the twentieth century, to the implementation of the elements found in what we call today call an installation.
The installation critically questions the classical typologies of art works, they can be paintings creating a relationship with space and the same goes for sculpture.
The installation can also question new media such as video, internet, or photography.