In the Blink of an Eye

TAP

In the Blink of an Eye

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What kind of image holds up in the face of failure?

During the uprising in 2019, the billboards also became a space for public outcry, providing structural support for impromptu interventions, questioning the role of the public and private sectors in the face of the crisis – much like other public structures in the city (the Egg, the statue in Martyr’s square, and major city roundabouts). In the past couple of years, we’ve seen the demise of the image, iconography and representation in full juxtaposition to a failing political state.

In January 2024, TAP reached out to ten visual artists to create context-responsive, socially-engaged works that occupy the space of the billboard – conceptually reflecting and subverting the commentary on the failure of its classic image: the advertisement. The billboard format requires the contemporary artist to address a wide general audience and engage unsuspecting passersby with great visual clarity.

The use of billboards and the subversion of the media signscape by contemporary artists is inscribed in a rich political and social history. Dating back to the 1980s with the advent of the billboard advertisement, artists like Jenny Holzer, the Guerrilla Girls, John Fekner, Félix González-Torres and Tania Bruguera began using the larger-than-life format to subvert the consumerist-driven agenda, by infiltrating the public spaces, permeating the billboard medium, and occupying the billboard structure.

TAP finds in commissioning public artworks a unique opportunity to grant contemporary artists a space to expand their field of practice outside of their studios and white-cube spaces. There have been instances when artworks have been displayed in a public setting, however, we are more interested in asking artists to think more critically about what it means to practice art in public: with and around the audience for whom the work has been created, and to allow the work to be molded and mediated by the experiences of the audience.

Dimensions: 20 x 15 x 1 cm 
Weight: 0.01 kg
Pages: 21 pages
Language: English
Publisher: TAP (Temporary Art Platform)
Published: 2024
Binding Type: Paperback

This item is eligible for international shipping.

TAP is a nonprofit organization committed to making another world possible, by affecting social change through contemporary art.

Founded in a region of unrelenting volatility and absent cultural policies, TAP curates the conditions for communities, private bodies and governmental institutions to recognize that contemporary artists can be allies in driving enduring social change amidst precarious contexts.

In the process, TAP creates accessible tools and production opportunities for contemporary artists, whilst rendering their practice porous and participatory, within and beyond the field of art.

TAP was founded by curator Amanda Abi Khalil and registered as a nonprofit organization in Lebanon in 2014 and in France in 2020. It is based in Beirut and Paris, and its interventions take place internationally.

TAP is a nonprofit organization committed to making another world possible, by affecting social change through contemporary art.

Founded in a region of unrelenting volatility and absent cultural policies, TAP curates the conditions for communities, private bodies and governmental institutions to recognize that contemporary artists can be allies in driving enduring social change amidst precarious contexts.

In the process, TAP creates accessible tools and production opportunities for contemporary artists, whilst rendering their practice porous and participatory, within and beyond the field of art.

TAP was founded by curator Amanda Abi Khalil and registered as a nonprofit organization in Lebanon in 2014 and in France in 2020. It is based in Beirut and Paris, and its interventions take place internationally.

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