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Art & Art History vocabulary · Contemporary Art

Site-specific

Meaning in art & art history, with examples

/ˌsaɪt spəˈsɪfɪk/adjectiveAdvanced term

In art & art history, site-specific means: Made for one particular place and depending on its history, architecture or surroundings, so that the work would lose its meaning if it were moved.

In Turkish: mekana özgü, yere özgü

How it is used

Used for installations, land art, murals and commissions: a site-specific installation, a site-specific work for a historic cistern. Biennials often invite artists to make site-specific works in old buildings.

Example sentences

  1. The site-specific installation in the Byzantine cistern uses only light and sound.

  2. Because the work is site-specific, it cannot travel with the rest of the exhibition.

Common collocations

  • site-specific installation
  • site-specific work
  • site-specific commission
  • site-specific project
  • installationAn artwork made for a particular space, often filling a whole room, which visitors walk into or around and experience with more than just their eyes.
  • commissionA formal request, with payment, for an artist to make a particular work; also the work made in this way. As a verb, to order such a work.
  • biennialA large international exhibition of contemporary art held every two years in the same city, such as those in Venice, São Paulo and Istanbul.
  • street artArt made in public outdoor spaces, such as murals, stencils, stickers and paste-ups on walls, often without official permission.

More terms: Contemporary Art

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