Editing Site-specific art (section)

==History==
[[File:Robert Irwin Scrim Veil Black Rectangle Natural Light Whitney 2013.jpg|thumb|Robert Irwin, ''Scrim Veil Black Rectangle Natural Light'', Whitney Museum 2013]]
The term "site-specific art" was promoted and refined by Californian artist [[Robert Irwin (artist)|Robert Irwin]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=The art of light + space|last=Butterfield|first=Jan|publisher=Abbeville|year=1993|isbn=1558592725|location=New York|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/artoflightspace0000butt}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Robert Irwin: All the Rules Will Change|last=Hankins|first=Evelyn|publisher=Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden|year=2016|isbn=978-3791355146}}</ref> but it was actually first used in the mid-1970s by young sculptors, such as [[Patricia Johanson]], [[Dennis Oppenheim]], and [[Athena Tacha]], who had started executing public commissions for large urban sites.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Chowdhry|first=Pritika|date=2021-11-06|title=Site-Specific Art|url=https://www.pritikachowdhry.com/post/site-specific-art|access-date=2021-11-06|website=Pritika Chowdhry Art|language=en}}</ref> For ''Two Jumps for Dead Dog Creek'' (1970), Oppenheim attempted a series of standing jumps at a selected site in Idaho, where "the width of the creek became a specific goal to which I geared a bodily activity," with his two successful jumps being "dictated by a land form."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Site-Specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation|url=https://archive.org/details/sitespecificartp00kaye|url-access=limited|chapter=Embodying Site: Dennis Oppenheim and Vito Acconci|last=Kaye|first=Nick|publisher=Routledge|year=2000|isbn=0-203-13829-5|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sitespecificartp00kaye/page/n172 154]}}</ref> Site specific environmental art was first described as a movement by architectural critic Catherine Howett and art critic [[Lucy Lippard]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Chowdhry|first=Pritika|date=2021-11-06|title=Site-Specific Art|url=https://www.pritikachowdhry.com/post/site-specific-art|access-date=2021-11-06|website=Pritika Chowdhry Art|language=en}}</ref> Emerging out of [[minimalism]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity|last=Kwon|first=Miwon|publisher=MIT|year=2002|isbn=0-203-13829-5|location=Cambridge (Massachusetts), London|pages=3}}</ref> site-specific art opposed the [[Modernism|Modernist]] program of subtracting from the artwork all cues that interfere with the fact that it is "art",<ref>Kaye (citing O'Docherty's ''Inside the White Cube'', 1986), p. 27</ref>

Modernist art objects were transportable,  nomadic, could only exist in the museum space and were the objects of the market and commodification. Since 1960 the artists were trying to find a way out of this situation, and thus drew attention to the site and the context around this site. The work of art was created in the site and could only exist and in such circumstances - it can not be moved or changed. The notion of "site" precisely references the current location, which comprises a unique combination of physical elements: depth, length, weight, height, shape, walls, temperature.<ref>Kwon, p.3</ref> Works of art began to emerge from the walls of the museum and galleries ([[Daniel Buren]], Within and Beyond the Frame, John Weber Gallery, New York, 1973), were created specifically for the museum and galleries ([[Michael Asher (artist)|Michael Asher]], untitled installation at Claire Copley Gallery, Los Angeles, 1974, [[Hans Haacke]], Condensation Cube, 1963–65, [[Mierle Laderman Ukeles]], Hartford Wash: Washing Tracks, Maintenance Outside, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1973), thus criticizing the museum as an institution that sets the rules for artists and viewers.<ref>Kwon, p. 13</ref>

[[Jean-Max Albert]], created [[Sculptures Bachelard]] in [[Parc de la Villette]] related to the site, or ''Carlotta’s Smile'', a [[trellis (architecture)|trellis]] construction related to Ar. Co,’s architecture [[Lisbon]], and to a choreography in collaboration with Michala Marcus and [[Carlos Zingaro]], 1979.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.arcoabecedario.pt/entries/41?locale=en|title=Abecedário — AR.CO — Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual|website=www.arcoabecedario.pt|access-date=2018-10-26}}</ref>

When the public debate over ''[[Tilted Arc]]'' (1981) resulted in its removal in 1989, its author [[Richard Serra]] reacted with what can be considered a definition of site-specific art: "To move the work is to destroy the work."<ref>Kaye, p. 2</ref>