Open Systems: Rethinking Art c. 1970 at Tate Modern

Tate Modern's 2005 exhibition 'Open Systems: Rethinking Art c. 1970' explored paradigm shifts in art around 1970, focusing on the concept of 'open systems' as curated by Donna De Salvo. The show examined three key factors: expansion into new media (installation, performance, photography, film, video), social and political upheavals (May 1968), and technological/scientific progress. The first room featured Donald Judd's cube alongside works by Richard Long, Hans Haacke, and Sol LeWitt, emphasizing viewer participation. The second room was Mel Bochner's 'Measurement Room' (1969), a cube with mathematical measurements written on walls. Subsequent rooms addressed 'male systems' of domination via Valie Export and Martha Rosler (whose video 'Vital Statistics of a Citizen, Simply Obtained' depicted a woman measured like cattle), architecture (Anarchitecture collective), ecology (Marcel Broodthaers' artificial palm gardens), biological systems (Haacke), and politics (Ilya Kabakov, Gerhard Richter's '48 Portraits'). The exhibition concluded with Bruce Nauman's video cameras evoking Bentham's Panopticon, suggesting a dystopian future after 1968's utopias. Critic Yann Perreau noted the absence of references to Oulipo, an avant-garde group exploring systems and mathematical logic.