PUBLICATIONS

Vol. 2, Mark Boyles und Joan Hills’ Reise um die Welt and reproduces, VOL 2: German, "Mark Boyles und Joan Hills’ Reise um die Welt "bears the same title in German as the main book publication with the original title "Mark Boyle’s Journey to the Surface of the Earth", as published in Stuttgart /London in 1978 by Edition Hansjörg Mayer) "and reproduces, in German translation, a number of the texts that appear in Vol. 1 (and was published on the occasion of the Mark Boyle exhibition, revised and amplified, and curated by Martin Kunz, at Kunstmuseum Luzern, again in 1978, the same year in which it was earlier presented at the Venice biennale. Martin Kunz collaborated from the very start with Mark Boyle and the British Council both for the co-ordination of the presentation at the Biennale, and for the organization of the more extended version of the show that immediately followed at Kunstmuseum Luzern. in German translation, a number of the texts that appear in Vol. 1 (Mark Boyle’s Journey to the Surface of the Earth. The Vol 2 was published on the occasion of the Mark Boyle exhibition in Lucerne, revised and amplified, and curated by Martin Kunz, at Kunstmuseum Luzern, again in 1978, the same year in which it was earlier presented at the Venice Biennale. Martin Kunz collaborated from the very start with Mark Boyle and the British Council both for the co-ordination of the presentation at the Biennale, and for the organization of the more extended version of the show that immediately followed at Kunstmuseum Luzern. Mark Boyle asjed that his wife and artistic partner Koan Hilla could be included in the Title, what MK did for this volume as well as for the follow up exhibition, a year later 1979 and produced while the artists worked in Lucerne see link Vol. 3. Schweizer Serie /The Swiss Site Mark Boyle’s and Joan Hill’s Journey to the Surface of the Earth – Vol 3. bilingual in English and German, bears the title Mark Boyles’ und Joan Hill’s Reise um die Welt – Schweizer Serie / Mark Boyle’s and Joan Hill’s Journey to the Surface of the Earth – The Swiss Site, and is dedicated to the couple’s two-year exploration of a Swiss locale, of which the report was then presented, in 1980, as an exhibition at Kunstmuseum Luzern. This exhibition and its catalogue had been preceded by the artist’s major retrospective—Mark Boyle’s Journey to the Surface of the Earth Vol. 1—at the British pavilion of the 1978 Venice Biennale; and it was in the course of that retrospective that visitors had taken part in a chance-based operation which resulted in the indication that the artists were to make a journey of exploration to a certain locale in Switzerland. At Kunstmuseum Luzern, the artists thus presented a thorough documentation of that journey. Though based on the exploration of an entirely chance-determined site, the resultant work was quite germane and presented a wealth of various kinds of information. The artist’s praxis consisted of an objective and detailed, but almost “obsessively chance-determined” exploration of the surface of the earth and of inhabited urban centers; and the destinations of these journeys of exploration were often determined in nearly playful ways, such as by darts thrown at a globe or a world map by visitors at an exhibition. Mark Boyle and his wife Joan Hills then traveled to the designated places, abandoning all subjective whims on things to do in the course of their travels. They limited themselves entirely to the collection of large or small samples of the territory they were visiting, also photographing particulars of its animal and vegetable life: photographs that were then enlarged into unrecognizability. The end result is the expression of a highly original aesthetic that aims to rid itself of any subjective gaze, but which again becomes personal and individual by way of the deployment of various means of documentation which are also inclusive of video, writing, and live performance.

Exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Luzern, November 5 - December 6, 1978. Texts: Martin Kunz, Mark Boyle, and J. L. Locher