i n s t a l l a t i o n  a r t : "Art made for a specific space, exploiting certain qualities of that space, more often indoors than out. The term became widely used in the 1970s and 1980s, largely replacing the term "site-specific," which means the same thing. Installations may be temporary or permanent, but most will be known through documentation such as photographs.  As a consequence, one aspect of installations is often the difficulty with which they can be commodified (collected, sold or bought)". THe above information has been taken from the following site: http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/ij/installation.html m e d i a   u s e d : Installation art incorporates any media such as sculpture, photography, readymades, printmedia, text, video, sound and painting. Installation art can be found anywhere, in public places, galleries or museums.   h i s t o r y : Installation art can be traced back to prehistoric cave painting in France. In contemporary culture though, installation art found it beings and influences in modern art as artists began to explore beyond the traditional boundaries of art. An example of this can be seen in the work of Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968).  If you have a look at the readymade artwork by Duchamp on the bottom right hand side of this page you can see how he has used untraditional art material like a bicycle wheel and a stool. What was Duchamp trying to say be creating an artwork that didn't use any of the traditional mediums (sculpture, painting etc.) and techniques? Well, he was more concened about the meaning behind the artwork than the actual work itself.  His intention was to provoke audiences to make them consider, what is, and should be considered art. He was also breaking the tradition of artist as 'hero'. Duchamps initiative encouraged future artists to use anytype of medium to present their thoughts and ideas. No longer would they be confined within the traditional mediums to create their  art.

Louise Bourgeios, Geometry of Desire, 2003   Christian Boltanski,  Installation, date unknown Bill Viola,  The Passage, 1997 Video/sound installation Marcel Duchamp,  Bicycle Wheel, 1993