Interpretation of Work
Artur Barrio does not see his work as the creation of a finished product. He is an interactive artist; he creates the situation where people interact with and react to artifacts that Barrio has put in place. One of his best known such works, Situação T/T1, (Unfolding of the Body Situation), was titled literally as a situation, not just a stagnant piece of art. In this work Barrio constructed "bloody packages" and tied them loosely. He then strategically placed these "blood-stained rags (trouxas ensanguentadas) in a park to provoke public reactions before police arrived."
Barrio has always pushed the boundaries of what materials can be used in the production of art. He has used salt, the toilet paper coffee grinds, meat, blood, feces and urine.
Barrio has no interest in the preservation of his pieces since the art he is interested in is the experience of creating the art and the experience of interacting with art. To Barrio, the artifacts that are used to create these experiences are not the art and do not need to be preserved. Interest in the transient experience of the work without regard for permanent curation is one of the things that have freed Barrio to use perishable substances in his work. This and the fact that so much of the materials used in creating his works are perishable and decay means that there is very little work of Barrio’s in existence in permanent collections.
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