<p>The paper discusses the problems contemporary Swedish art criticism faces when judging performance art and interactive art. Problems include among others that performance art is collectively ignored in Swedish newspaper art criticism. This prevents art critics from fair contextualising of contemporary performance art. Down in the rabbit hole, performance by Tris Vonna-Michell and its reception exemplifies these problems. Performance and interactive art seems to be disturbing art critics. Works of art which demands the viewer to take active part in its realisation makes it hard – not to say impossible - to maintain an objective point of wiew. Objectivity has been a condition to be able to judge a work of art since Kant’s theories 1791. In order to isolate all the problems concerning performance art and interactive art, the conditions of contemporary Swedish newspaper art criticism are described. To show that the general conditions and its problems have been discussed earlier, the paper also includes the latest big debate about Swedish art criticism. The paper shows that the problem for art critics to remain objective and independent from the work of art presented is not exclusive for performance and interactive art. It is an emblematic problem for Swedish art criticism 2006. This problem includes economic and careerist opportunities witch makes it hard for Swedish art critics to remain independent.</p>

The paper discusses the problems contemporary Swedish art criticism faces when judging performance art and interactive art. Problems include among others that performance art is collectively ignored in Swedish newspaper art criticism. This prevents art critics from fair contextualising of contemporary performance art. Down in the rabbit hole, performance by Tris Vonna-Michell and its reception exemplifies these problems. Performance and interactive art seems to be disturbing art critics. Works of art which demands the viewer to take active part in its realisation makes it hard – not to say impossible - to maintain an objective point of wiew. Objectivity has been a condition to be able to judge a work of art since Kant’s theories 1791. In order to isolate all the problems concerning performance art and interactive art, the conditions of contemporary Swedish newspaper art criticism are described. To show that the general conditions and its problems have been discussed earlier, the paper also includes the latest big debate about Swedish art criticism. The paper shows that the problem for art critics to remain objective and independent from the work of art presented is not exclusive for performance and interactive art. It is an emblematic problem for Swedish art criticism 2006. This problem includes economic and careerist opportunities witch makes it hard for Swedish art critics to remain independent.

The remarks on this subject stem from the conditions spatial works engender in the encounter with the viewer. The aim has been to provide the reader with a framework within which to place individual experiences of the works. The exhibition Spatial Works, to which this research paper is connected, exemplifies variations within spatial work. By organizing an exhibition around this context, the variations presented is fleshed out. The research preceding the exhibition has resulted in the development of a specific terminology; an articulation of different practices in installation art. Psychodramatic, Thespian, Temporal and Permutation are here seen as mannerisms of spatial works of art. The expanded significance presented in this paper is a feature of composition, as the dramatic condition characterizes the encounter between object and subject. The polyphony of information encountered by the viewer is not only created by the art work itself, but also by its signifying composition, so to say `al fresco´ of the work, of which the observer gains certainty of the pieces spatiality as well as understands of the work of art. / WIRE, Critical Writing and Curatorial Practice