History of Social Practice 2017: Artistic Placement Group

The Artistic Placement Group (AGP) was established 1966 in London. The idea of the group was conceived by Barbara Steveni and her husband John Latham in 1965 along with other notable members, Barry Flanagan, David Hall, Jeffrey Shaw, Stuart Brisley, Hugh Davies,Andrew Dipper, David Toop and Ian Breakwell.

The APG concept was driven by “dematerialisation”, moving away from object-based work as a means of understanding the meaning of the piece. The sought to take art out of the studios and into the institutions of society focusing towards site-specific work and to build social relationships. Starting in Europe they expanded to Germany, Austria, France and the Netherlands

The APG was initially constituted as a charity with a board of artistic directors, and later converted into a limited company. Steveni remained a key driving force being creating contacts, maintaining correspondence with hundreds of companies and organisations.

Their mission statement was that “Art would no longer be confined to the studio and galleries, the their field of activity would be extended to the commercial, industrial and administrative contests to act up societal organisations and decision making process.”

The AGP actively sought to have “placements” in industry or public institutions making the case that an artistic presence out be a mutual benefit between the organisations, considering themselves a placement agency. Without explicit membership, it was comprised of a loose network of artists who would be proposed to organizations willing to participate. Ideally, each placement would work for several months under a ‘feasibility study’. The central premise of the negotiations was to guarantee the principle of open-ended work during placements. The artist would function as an independent observer within the organization

During this time the artist would familiarize one’s self with the work place to consider what specific context could formulate and artistic proposal, whatever the case may be, in hopes for longer placement on the various projects. It often did not progress beyond the feasibility study.

Representatives for business and government were invited to APG’s studio to discuss their project proposals. Their public presentations tended to not go over well with most of the organisations that they were employed by due to their performative nature.