Assembly Required Francis Alÿs Rasheed Araeen Siah Armajani Lygia Clark Hélio Oiticica
Yoko Ono Lygia Pape Franz Erhard Walther Tania Bruguera & INSTAR
Assembly Required features nine artists and collectives whose work calls for your active participation. Each gallery represents a single artist who invites you to build, shape, and use the artworks, collaboratively or on your own. These artists believe public action is vital for transforming society. Through their work, they offer unique perspectives on social change, addressing the need for optimism and hope in the face of global tensions. Many works in this exhibition helped contribute to a profound transformation in the relationship between artist and audience. This shift grew out of larger social movements that arose in the mid-twentieth century. In the tumultuous period following World War II (1939-45), society questioned how to prevent governments from exerting control over citizens’ lives. Philosopher Hannah Arendt proposed one potential solution in her influential book, The Human Condition (1958). She argued that only public assembly, which she termed “action,” could affect real societal change.