19/11/2020
Posted @withregram • @art360fdn A Tribute to prolific artist and activist, Barbara Steveni, by close collaborator and friend, Laure Prouvost, can now be read on our website and issuu page: art360foundation.org.uk/barbara-steveni-tribute.
Our thanks to Laure Prouvost for sharing the following texts, and to the Estate of Barbara Steveni for their involvement in the Tribute,
I, A Letter to Barbara Steveni from Laure Prouvost & ‘Man’
II, A Conversation In the Garden about the connection of everything at the same time with Laure Prouvost, Barbara Steveni and Anna Goertz.
This Tribute, generously shared by Prouvost, is a testimony to the extraordinary life and legacy of an artist whose archive, work and ideas continue to inspire creators and thinkers across generations. The life’s work of Barbara Steveni is an invaluable resource for the present and future, and we are grateful to have been able to support the development of Steveni’s archive in her lifetime through our programme.
Barbara Steveni is renowned for having conceived and co-founded the Artist Placement Group (APG) in London in 1966. APG actively sought to reposition the role of the artist within a wider social context, including government and commerce, while at the same time playing an important part in the history of conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s.
Steveni’s most recent work before sadly passing away in February 2020, I AM AN ARCHIVE, gathered artists and professionals across three generations in a series of participatory and documentary walks, taking place in the site of the original APG placements, exploring the potential to reactivate and re-contextualise APG methodologies today.
Image: still from ‘Barbara Steveni’, An Art360 Film by David Bickerstaff (2017) showing Laure Prouvost filming Barbara Steveni’s work including, ‘Beginning Walks’, 2002.
Images featured here and in the issuu publication are courtesy of the Barbara Steveni Estate.
You can read more about Barbara Steveni’s legacy and practice, as well as ongoing work around the Archive, at barbarasteveni.org