Relational Aesthetics
About
A term that emerged in the mid-1990s for artists who created interactive or multi-sensory installations and emphasized the possibility of social exchange within them. French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud coined the term and described it as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context." Relational Aesthetics was first used in the 1996 catalog for Bourriaud's exhibition "Traffic" at CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain de Bordeaux. The exhibition featured artists like Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Liam Gillick, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Miltos Manetas, Philippe Parreno, Jorge Pardo, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.
