Guggenheim Museum - Global Exhibitions - Berlin - Bruce Nauman: Theaters of Experience

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Bruce Nauman: Theaters of Experience
October 31, 2003–January 18, 2004

"If I was an artist and in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art." Bruce Nauman came to this simple but profound realization as a young artist in the late 1960s. Approaching art as an activity more than mere product or object, he began videotaping his own simple tasks and movements in the studio as a means of achieving a heightened sense of space and self. Eventually, Nauman got audience into the act: as their movements are videotaped, viewers are invited to make their way down the impossibly narrow corridors and passageways that constitute many of the artist's installations.

Throughout his career Nauman has given sustained attention to issues of spectatorship, self-awareness, and voyeurism. Bruce Nauman: Theaters of Experience features key works in various mediums—sculpture, film, neon, and video—that address these compelling themes. Many works are from the Guggenheim's permanent holdings, enhanced with loans from the Panza Collection and private lenders.

Bruce Nauman, Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square, 1967–68. 16 mm black-and-white film, silent, approx. 00:10:00. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York