To Show: apropos of Marcel Duchamp’s Étant donnés: 1° La chute d’eau, 2° Le gaz d’éclairage

Sammanfattning: Popular Abstract in English Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) is an artist who has strongly influenced how art is currently understood. He aimed at broadening the concept of art and suggested that other things than paintings and sculptures could be defined as art. The thesis concerns Duchamp’s permanent installation Étant donnés: 1° La chute d’eau, 2° Le gaz d’éclairage (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas). It was presented to the public posthumously and represents a naked woman lying outstretched in an artificial but realistic landscape. The woman holds an old-fashioned gas-lamp in one hand and a small waterfall glimmers in the background. The technique of the installation is similar to dioramas with stuffed animals in their natural environments, which traditionally can be seen in natural history museums, although the scenery created by Duchamp can only be seen through two small peepholes in an old wooden door. Duchamp not only explored the limits of art but also the concepts of science. Duchamp’s ideas have influenced the structure and content of this thesis and in some aspects it differs from how an academic thesis usually is presented. It consists of a number of booklets collected in an archive box. The booklets can be read in any desired order and thus not necessarily in the order in which they are listed. The booklets contain reports from readings of texts about Étant donnés, studies of details in Duchamp’s work, efforts to find a mathematical explanation of the geometric plan of the installation, quotes from literature functioning as comments on the Duchamp’s work, pictorial reflections, and suggestions of how bilingualism can be used as a creative instrument. Skin and nudity in art is touched upon and also the male artist’s attitude towards creating a work of art in the form of a woman.