“Behind”

If thematic exhibitions present and try to comprehensively illustrate the results of a curator’s vision or research, why not skip back a few steps and display what was in the artist’s mind during the creative act? Why not attempt to exhibit the process that generated an artwork? For “Behind,” curator Ilaria Gianni has done just that, inviting ten young artists to show the method each adopted for a specific artwork. Artists, of course, employ dissimilar creative processes. Some, like Nina Beier and Marie Lund, follow a didactic set of rules by displaying material inherent to their pieces (in this case, one based on collective history); others, like Laura Lancaster, reveal the documentary sources of their paintings (here, books and a found video). Simon Evans adopted a more expressive approach by adding notes and schemes to his piece Different Drugs, 2004, to give evidence of his constructive process. This fascinating exhibition should be understood as an experiment that allows artists to rethink their works and the practice that generates them—a dialogue presented as a gallery show. Interestingly, this turns out to be much less document based than one might have foreseen. The obsession with form remains; these artists’ processes are as finalized as the artworks themselves.