The exhibition Making Use comprises reports on “art outside art.” The presented practices usually emerge as a result of cross-pollination between art and other areas of life; sites to which artistic competence has “migrated.” The objects on display rarely carry the status of an artwork (although there are some that have lost this status, or ones which might gain it in future). A report acts rather as “evidence,” which presents the activities taking place outside of the museum to the public. It may take the form of a flyer, poster, postcard, photograph, letter, magazine, souvenir, damaged object, promotional film, and so on. Instead of functioning as objects of aesthetic contemplation, such reports are material and visual traces that represent and depict the stories of practices and processes that have already happened or are happening elsewhere. In some cases, a report may take the form of an instruction, inviting the audience to perform specific tasks, or to create specific objects. These kinds of reports or protocols are not mere abstract models, but rather methods of sharing practical knowledge in the do-it-yourself spirit.
The presentation of the reports in exhibition does not carry with it the intention to musealize a given practice or thing. Even if the tendency of the contemporary institution to “hijack” non-art is widely recognized, and often critiqued, in this case the museum is to act as an information centre about life in postartistic times, encouraging independent ventures to other plausible art worlds.