Unconventional methods of exhibiting works of art Summary Manifesting itself in other domains than the artistic one that

t of philosophy, literature, architecture, etc.- postmodernism, as a phenomenon, is next in the visual arts plan, in the internal logic of the art, opposing energetically to modernism, although, in reality, being a possible extension of it. The postmodern art keeps the avant-gardes spirit free, but renounces abstraction in favor of a new realism obtained through the translation in the present of the traditional realism naturalism and its straining through this shaping- innovating spirit. Being a stable element of culture and presenting, during its evolution, different mobility and adaptation aspects to the spiritual models of the era, art is now prepared to use, in its way, all its historys experience, and also to use all the novelty and the advantages of the present in what technology and science are concerned. In one way novelties aim at the artistic vision, the conceptual aspects, on the other way aim at the formal aspects of the work of art, from the plastic expression to the technical and technological related problems or to the materials used by the artists etc. The paper: Unconventional methods of exhibiting works of art presents, as a result of the research, the ways of exhibiting the contemporary work of art and the characteristics of the unconventional exposition space, context in which the accents were on the ratio between conventional unconventional, highlighting the study of the unconventional. The cultural manifestations artistic characteristics of the contemporary art need specific exposition spaces. They can not fully express their intentions than in a special context, depending on a complex number of factors. The varied unconventional displaying space of the work of art is transferred in the aesthetic sphere (like the ready-made objects which are brought in the gallery), from the private or from the public area, from the natural or industrial area, but also from the virtual area. New art artists resort to this kind of spaces and this is because of an inner necessity, because of the need to display and not just to install the work in a proper environment for a presentation and for a good communication with the public. Although artists do not give up the conventional spaces, at museums or at any type of white cube galleries, nevertheless the unconventional space is preferred for its ideational baggage, opposed to the neutrality of the conventional space. In the course of the exhibition, which sometimes starts backwards from the exposition space to creation, adapting and dedicating the work to this

space, the contemporary artist suggests the importance of these spaces as being generators of gestures and of visual-artistic actions. Beyond the conventional or the unconventional character of the forms and spaces, the exposition can solve and diffuse any kind of situation, apparently conflicting, so that the exposition intermediates between the two types of space. In this way, this paper also aims at presenting a number of case studies in which the unconventional exposition has a mediator role, cases in which the the way and the type of exposition bare in turns the conventional and the unconventional quality. Also it has been tried to determine an ideal type of relationship between the artistic form and the exposition space. Thanks to the fact that exposition is a determined factor in what the formation of the unconventional work of art, but also in the process of the artistic creation are concerned, this paper Unconventional methods of exhibiting works of art analyzes, in the important chapters like The exposition and the unconventional space, The exposition of the body as an unconventional form, the relationship between the form (of the work) and the exposition space, as essential elements of this discourse. Chapter I proposes an overall image upon the work of art, upon the contemporary artistic phenomenon in general, aiming at their integration in the context of the contemporary culture. The accentuated relational character of the postmodern art is highlighted, giving the necessary importance to the role of the exposition in the transformation of the objects from the aesthetic sphere in unconventional works of art. At a thorough analysis we see that as general features, that this period is marked by a gradual return to realism, a preoccupation through which there have been refilled certain hovels of the current visual structures. In the same time, there has been a gradual conceptualization of the entire artistic phenomenon (in Happening or Performance the accent being moved entirely from the work itself to the process of the artistic creation), an action based on a new concept, on a new vision. This was how new movements like: New Realism, Pop Art, Minimal Art, Arte Povera, Land Art, Body Art, movements in which the artists total liberty of expression is cited and the denial of all the conventions imposed by the traditional art appeared, without contravening the generally valid artistic values. The apparition of the new media represents another characteristic of time. And in this case we can find the essential role held by the avant-garde in the launching of the phenomenon

(through movements like: Futurism, Constructivism or the Bauhaus School, through the general tendency towards experiment), next to the research which was developed in the scientific and in the technical field carried out at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. In postmodern art, the aesthetic object does not represent, at least from a formal point of view, a strictly separate entity from the rest of the objects and from the rest of the real world. The social character of the work of art is determined, mainly, by this fact, by the whole string of relationships, links and collaborations which are established by it with all that it surrounds it, art being regarded as a meeting state. Publishing in 2000 The Relational Aesthetics, Nicolas Bourriaud draws the attention upon the features of the contemporary art, upon the need of a new attitude of the artist concerning life, this being directly depended on the factors of a new social, economical, political and cultural relationship, of a certain artistic context: a new exposition space and a new public directly involved, as an active part in the process of creation. Although, we do not have to understand postmodern art as an art of the totally new reality forms, torn from some visual arts traditions. In what the problem of the exhibition methods of the works of art are concerned, in the contemporary art has opened the way to unconventional expressions, thanks to the new forms of visual communication, with direct and indirect effects over its way of exposition. Also, the changing of the vision concerning the exposition space brought a significant contribution to the apparition of new unconventional, ingenious and varied ways. We also notice, the importance which the process of the exposition has in this new context, the exposition gradually becoming a way of presentation of the conventional work of art (a characteristic of the modern art), in an essential moment of the postmodern artistic creation, which exposes and creates itself in the same time. This work appears like a redefined visual creation, like a total work of art, representing a reintegrated component of the contemporary visual art. Therefore, the exposition becomes important, with multiple significations. The perception and the understanding of the contemporary art depends, mainly, on the way and the quality of the exposition, be it in the spirit of the traditional art, be it in the spirit of the aesthetic orientation of the current period. Conventional or unconventional, the exposition represents an intermediation between form and space and it makes the connection between the work of art and the suggested ambient space (a space related with the work of art). So, the ways of exposition may influence

both the formal aspects and those conceptual aspects of the manifestation (expositions), thus participating in this way to the process of the artistic creation. In conclusion, no matter if we refer to forms, spaces or ways of exposition the term unconventional describes certain situations, phenomenon outputs (or toppings) from the sphere of the reestablished conventions, of the fixed frames, of the norms, rules and of the canons imposed by the traditional art. Through associations and surprising parallelisms, through direct improvisations, through visual and non-visual adaptations to concrete situations, through using a vast gamma of techniques and plastic effects, the unconventional exposition highlights certain contradictory aspects of the reality, affecting, both through plastic expression, message and through acquiring a powerful impact on the public. The sub-chapter Forms of exposition in contemporary art analyzes the exposition as an act of creation, as an integrated part of the process of the constitution of the work, like it appears to us in postmodern art. Gradually there were treated three different cases: the exposition on thematic criteria (I.3.a), where the common denominator of the works which were present at the exhibition represents the theme (directly derived from the content of this type of exhibition), while the ways of expressing, the techniques, the way of exposition are different from an author to another. Secondly, it has being analyzed the exposition in the case of the installation (I.3.b), in which firstly the accent is on the formal unity of the ensemble. In the installation, each element from the exposition is subordinated to the whole, not being able to work independently. The third highlighted case is the one of the exposition in the performance type of actions (I.3.c), a distinct artistic manifestation in which the exposition is confused with creation. Is the type of exposition action in which all the phases and all the components of the artistic process, from initiation/conception, execution/elaboration and simultaneous exposition, until the phase of contemplation/reception by the public, take place at the same time in the same place. Chapter II, The exposition and the exhibition, conventional and unconventional space, mainly discusses the problem of the unconventional space (the space of the streets, the private, the natural, the industrial or the virtual space) and its transformation, through art, into an interactive public space. More precisely, the exposition and the display background of the contemporary work of art, the context, the environment which includes it, which defines and fulfills it.

The conventional public spaces in which contemporary art finds its proper manifestation territory are the museums (both the classical ones and those of contemporary art), the galleries (also those white - cube type and even those specialized in contemporary art) and the exhibition art centers. The unconventional public spaces are represented by the unconventional galleries, which can be any kinds of enclosed spaces, built in an artistic and express way, as well as spaces with other destinations but adapted for the exposition. Another unconventional space for art, very used, is the street. To create urban art is, in the arts world, one of the ultimate challenges: to aesthetically transform the ambient of a city represents a very complex process. The artist who carries out urban projects is not an isolated character, solitary in the intimacy of his workshop, but on contrary he is the person of the interactions and of collaborations. Art in a public domain, firstly has to adapt to the urban context to which it is destined (like prime type of relation). Then, for the process of the elaboration to be initiated and materialized, it is necessary the interdisciplinary collaboration between the artist, architect, engineer, constructor, sociologist, etc., whose common project has to be according to the requirements of the beneficiary. The urban artistic project is the most appropriate place to combine the traditional mural techniques (fresco, graffito, mosaic, ceramics, glass, metal) with the new techniques (graffiti, sky art, land art or electronic art computer art, laser and holographic, video, billboard art, net art, locative art) and the results are amazing, consisting in a large variety of concretizations: objects, events, fixed images (Billboard), fluids (Light Art, screens), ephemeral (real time projection events). As for the exposition spaces, we propose a classification concerning their functions. Precise, street art can be achieved on the walls of the buildings, of the blocks of houses, of the private houses or of the public institutions, but also on the walls of the underground passages or of the subway stations. To these, we can add the surface of the billboards, of the tramcars, of the trains or subways; there can be interventions on the base of the monuments, on the concrete, on the fences, on the benches or on the garbage cans and others. The concept of home gallery refers, in the context of the contemporary art, to the bringing back of the private space into the public zone, with the aim of promoting the artistic manifestations, works of art or events. Living room galleries work according to the same rules as the ordinary galleries, only that the artist is also a curator, a manager and a gallerist and that all of these viewpoints, his actions are the expression of an assumed maximum freedom.

Also the natural space becomes in the contemporary art an exposition place, of display for art, integrating physically speaking the work, whether is about unlimited green spaces taken as surfaces, unaffected by civilization and, in general, by the presence of man, whether they are from the rural or the urban side, whether they use a certain purpose or they are abandoned (vacant land). The works made by the artists who adhere to this form of art highlight the unity which exists between all that is natural creation and human creativity. These works of art integrate themselves in the natural space in a symbiotic way trying to live together with it. The vacant lands are not the only urban abandoned areas which contemporary art can use. Therefore, art claims more and more territories which do not have any destination or which loose their initial functions. In this sense, we refer specially to the industrial complexes which are definitely out of the urban circuit and out of the economical sphere. (As a solution of compromise between the space with industrial destination and the art galleries, we signal the special case of the showrooms, art exhibitions which were made in these spaces representing common phenomena). Art borrowed from technology all that it became useful, and in the same time, technology ponders, interrogates the expression and the artistic value. But living together may be convenient, especially when technology creates spaces of presentation through the realization of new forms of exposition virtual galleries. This type of galleries has an original space: although they, physically, do not exist, is a reality which is potentially virtual objective. Anywhere there is Internet, a gallery that is at the other end of the globe can be accessed and visited. This is the essential aspect for which it really has sense and their existence efficiency. Chapter III, The exposition of the body as an unconventional form, highlights the human body among all the unconventional artistic forms. The accents was placed on using the body as a ready-made, as a ready-made object, on its exposition and its transformation in a work of art. Beginning with M. Duchamps or J. Beuys initiatives, ordinary things from the extraaesthetic sphere become works of art with the help of exposition. The exposition in the gallery, museums, makes of them works of art. From all of these objects, brought to art from ordinary life, the human body, itself reinterpreted, is the most significant and controversial in the same time. Therefore, today, once with the exposition of the human body as an unconventional form, through its usage as a ready-made in Performances or manifestations of Body Art, these do not need intermediaries, it does not have to be presented, it presents itself.

In the third sub-chapter III.3., Body Art. The hypostasis of the human body there have been analyzed some characteristic situations of this form of art, like: a) the body as a prop; b) the body in action; c) the body as material; d) extended body; e) the body as an object. In what this exact classification is concerned, it has to be mentioned the fact that all of these possibilities of approaching the body in reality, combine and connect, in different specific manifestations of the Body Art, only that the accent falls on the one of them. In all the presented cases actions, body transformation more profound ones or surface ones take place, the body constantly giving itself as a support for the artistic act. Next (Chap. III4. Performance and Body Art in Romania), it was studies the same phenomenon, but translated in the national context. Although the in Communist period the official art was on the side of the demands of the power, unconventional arts like Body Art and Performance, as new ephemeral events, could easily escape the control, unfolding in small circles, outside the public space, being documented in a total discretion and very resumed, because of the lack of means. The harsh ways of life, all kinds of enclosures, and a difficult general background (social, economic and political), have determined the Romanian artist to constantly resort to these kinds of actions, as a form of personal fight against the regime. Although these movements were unknown to the public, they signaled and demanded individual and collective rights of social and cultural manifestation. The fall of the communist regime brought out to light these types of events which took place underground since 1965, in most of the countries from the center and from Est of Europe, which in the past were under such totalitarian domination. In Romania, starting with the year 1989, Performance Art became an art genre which was very spread in the artistic domain, functioning, this time, in an opened uncensored way. Art gradually became open to the wide public, understanding the necessity of a direct implication in the culture artistic life. Therefore, Performance Art demonstrated in an way the civic attitude, the will to participate, through common means to the cultural recovery of the country (combining the efforts with all the other experimental forms of art). Chapter IV, Exposition, form, space. Study case., presents all the types of possible relationships between the work of art, its exposition and the exposition space, seen from the perspective of their relationship with the old and the new ways of artistic expression. Conventional or unconventional, old or new the artistic forms, types of arrays of the works of

art exhibited according to their value and the galleries build the final phase of the artistic process. Those four study cases analyzed are the materialization of those four possible combinations between the conventional or the unconventional forms and the conventional and unconventional spaces: IV.1. Conventional forms conventional space (Dan Perjovschi, Project 85, MoMA, New York); IV.2. Unconventional forms conventional space (About hens, men and other living creatures, Adina Tofan Cupola Gallery, Iai); IV.3. Conventional forms unconventional space (Land Art ensemble from Tueni Alexandru Chira). For each and every case the exposition method was analyzed, observing the originality of the conceptual and artistic ensemble. The paper contains a small chapter dedicated to Conclusions, next to Bibliography and image (reproductions) Annex which is a useful documentary material in the visual supporting of the theoretic approach. In Conclusions there are highlighted the essential (and original) aspects of the research and the Bibliography reflects the theoretical and practical preoccupations which concern this paper, and among the titles of the books, the Bibliography contains a rich illustrative material: catalogues, magazines and art albums, and also Internet addresses etc. In the end, we can say that resorting to forms, spaces and unconventional expositions we are in a dominating moment of the unconventional upon tradition. Although the Romanian artistic life takes place, mainly, in the classic space, the importance of the alternative phenomenon is significant, the actions of the emergent artists giving the tone to a revival of the artistic life. We see that the real artistic movement takes place in the alternative plan, that the new art proposes new directions of investigation, but mainly, it responds to some needs for knowledge, in fully agreement with the spiritual models of the present.