Abstract

The meaning of space has been re-evaluated in many academic disciplines. This paper wants to investigate the role of space in sculptural production. In opposition to thoughts, which reject the fundamental interrelation of space and sculpture, the author proposes a definition of sculptural practice as intervention in spatial relations. Sculpture, therefore, is defined as the outcome of interaction between sculptor and space. Changes in sculptural production are consequently not seen as results of individual lived experience or changing conditions of production, but first of all as results of a changing conception of space. This makes it possible to identify a common nature of sculpture, despite the radical ruptures and the apparently disparate developments in the spatial arts. Furthermore, the suggested definition of sculptural practice enables the investigation of the role of sculpture in physical, virtual, social and other forms of space. In order to illustrate the proposed definition of sculpture and to contextualise it in the contemporary artistic landscape, the paper will compare concepts and artworks such as: Joseph Beuys’ ‘Social Sculpture’, to Rosalind Krauss’ ‘Sculpture in the Expanded Field’.