Traffic is the title of a group exhibition of contemporary art that took place at

CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, formerly the Centre d'arts plastiques contemporains (CAPC), is a museum of modern art established in 1973 in Bordeaux, France. Building The museum is housed in the ''Entrepôt Lainé'', a former warehou ...

, France, through February and March, 1996.

Theme

The exhibition was curated by

Nicolas Bourriaud Nicolas Bourriaud (born 1965) is a curator and art critic, who has curated a great number of exhibitions and biennials all over the world. With Jérôme Sans, Bourriaud cofounded the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, where he served as codirector from ...

in order to showcase the tendency that he identified as Relational Aesthetics or

Relational Art Relational art or relational aesthetics is a mode or tendency in fine art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud. Bourriaud defined the approach as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theor ...

Critical reaction

Writing in ''Zing'' art magazine, Emily Tsingou said, "For a brief moment, and on a theoretical level, the show attempted an interesting claim. The idea, though, of interactivity is not a very lucid one, especially if one considers that it could be stretched to such extent as to encompass any art work and the presence of a viewer (even in its traditional sense, art functions on that quality) ... overall the show bore the characteristics of a traffic jam: at a standstill and agitated." Writing in ''

Frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

'' art magazine,

Carl Freedman Carl Freedman (born 1965) is the founder of Carl Freedman Gallery (formerly Counter Gallery). He previously worked as a writer and a curator. Life and career The 1990s and the Young British Artists Saatchi arrived at ''Gambler'' in a green B ...

said, "''Traffic'' and Bourriaud’s concept of ‘relationality’ were just too unspecific to be capable of defining a new art, especially when so many of the works did little to support the exhibition’s premise. This was an ambitiously funded exhibition which was only able to provide the viewer with a largely familiar array of objects and images. With the primary beneficiaries of ‘Traffic’ tending to be the participating artists and their associates, Bourriaud may need to look at what actually constitutes the socio-political determinants of his ‘interhuman space’.

Artists exhibited

Vanessa Beecroft Vanessa Beecroft (born April 25, 1969) is an Italian-born American contemporary performance artist; she also works with photography, video art, sculpture, and painting. Many of her works have made use of professional models, sometimes in large nu ...

Henry Bond Henry Bond, Higher Education Academy, FHEA (born 13 June 1966) is an English writer, photographer, and visual artist. In his ''Lacan at the Scene'' (2009), Bond made contributions to psychoanalysis, theoretical psychoanalysis and forensics. I ...

* Jes Brinch and

Henrik Plenge Jakobsen Henrik Plenge Jakobsen (born 1967 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a Danish conceptual artist, who works in a variety of media, from sculpture and installation art to performance art and public intervention. He has studied at the Royal Danish Academy o ...

Angela Bulloch Angela Bulloch (born 1966 in Rainy River, Ontario, Canada), is an artist who often works with sound and installation; she is recognised as one of the Young British Artists. Bulloch lives and works in Berlin. Life and career Bulloch studied at Go ...

Maurizio Cattelan Maurizio Cattelan (born 21 September 1960) is an Italian artist. Known primarily for his hyperrealistic sculptures and installations, Cattelan's practice also includes curating and publishing. His Satire, satirical approach to art has resulted in ...

* Andrea Clavadetscher and Eric Schumacher * Honoré d'O *

Liam Gillick Liam Gillick (born 1964, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) is a British artist who lives and works in New York City.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (born 30 June 1965, in Strasbourg) is a French visual artist and educator. She is known for her work in video projection, photography, and art installations. She has worked in landscaping, design, and writing. "I alw ...

Douglas Gordon Douglas Gordon (born 20 September 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Work Much of Gordon's w ...

Jens Haaning Jens Haaning (born 1965) is a Danish conceptual, contemporary artist living and working in Copenhagen. Haaning has produced a body of artworks since the 1990s, which attempt to offer an acute reflection of a complex and changing society in the ...

Lothar Hempel Lothar Hempel (born 1966 in Cologne) is a German artist based in Berlin. He attended Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1987 to 1992. Artistic practice Hempel transforms the exhibition space into a stage on which the visitor becomes an actor in a st ...

Freedman * Christine Hill * Noritoshi Hirakawa *

Carsten Höller Carsten Höller (born December 1961) is a German artist. He lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.Alice Rawsthorn (January 2012)"Cliff Hanger - The Ghanaian home of artists Carsten Höller and Marcel Odenbach goes above—and beyond" ''W Magazi ...

Pierre Huyghe Pierre Huyghe (born 11 September 1962) is a French artist who works in a variety of media from films and sculptures to public interventions and living systems. Education Pierre Huyghe (pronounced ''hweeg'') was born in Paris in 1962. He lives ...

Peter Land Peter Land (born 9 July 1953) is a New Zealand actor and singer known for his classical acting with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as appearances in many musicals. Biography Early life Born Peter Oliver ...

* Miltos Manetas *

Gabriel Orozco Gabriel Orozco (born April 27, 1962) is a Mexican artist. He gained his reputation in the early 1990s with his exploration of drawing, photography, sculpture and installation. In 1998, Francesco Bonami called Orozco "one of the most influenti ...

Jorge Pardo Jorge Pardo may refer to: *Jorge Pardo (artist) *Jorge Pardo (musician) (born 1955), Spanish musician *J. D. Pardo Jorge Daniel Pardo (born September 7, 1980) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Jack Toretto in '' F9'' (2021), as ...

Philippe Parreno Philippe Parreno (born 1964 in Oran, Algeria) is a contemporary French artist who lives and works in Paris. His works include films, Installation art, installations, performances, drawings, and text. Parreno focuses on expanding ideas of time ...

Jason Rhoades Jason Fayette Rhoades (July 9, 1965 – August 1, 2006) was an American installation artist. Better known in Europe, where he exhibited regularly for the last twelve years of his life, Rhoades was celebrated for his combination dinner party/ ...

* Christopher Sperandio and Simon Grennan *

Rirkrit Tiravanija Rirkrit Tiravanija ( th, ฤกษ์ฤทธิ์ ตีระวนิช, pronunciation: [] or Tea-rah-vah-nitJerry Saltz (May 7, 2007)Conspicuous Consumption''New York Magazine''.) is a Thai contemporary artist residing in New York City, Be ...

* Xavier Veilhan * Gillian Wearing *

Kenji Yanobe Kenji Yanobe (ヤノベケンジ ''Yanobe Kenji'') is a Japanese contemporary artist known for his upbeat yet dystopian artwork. His sculpture simulates consumer products designed for survival after a nuclear holocaust. He is a professor at Ky ...

References

{{Coord, 44.8481, -0.5718, display=title Art exhibitions in France 1996 in art