Critic Chris Cobb suggests that Bourriaud's «snapshot» of 1990s
art is a confirmation of the term (and idea) of relational
art, while illustrating «
different forms of social interaction as
art that deal fundamentally with issues
regarding public and private space.»
Though intertwined in practice, the pictorial and the presentational represent two
different worldviews, one identified with
art as
form, as something made, or something its maker arrives at, while the other
regards art primarily as a set of cultural signs, or a strategy that produces an artifact, something meant to be read.