[-empyre-] For whom is art "made"?

Sat May 10 11:35:41 EST 2008

Dear friends,

I decide to begin with this line of discussion.
I was out of internet for some days, and when I return, I have close to 50 mails! Sorry, but I didn't have the chance to answer everyday.

the first mail (of Megan) introduce a very hard question,
but... is not clear for me what he understands is art.

I mean, the question about for whom is "art" made, is interesting because also ask for me about this human dimension today.

when we say "art", are we talking about visual arts?

I think that is better to define this. My answer is trying to think about this: manufacturing images today. 

I put on the table this "stupid" commentary because, if we talk in a general way, I prefer to say "culture" and not art.

For me, to create images today is a hard work, because postmodernism (neoliberal culture) in my country (like always, a mimetic, colonialistic gesture) pretends to fight against a particular universe of images.

Visual language is talking, that's the first reflection. Is not silence.
Each artist, each group, each movement, have his own develope, his own discurse, his own text. One singular (not invididual) voice.

Then, is not a question that has one answer.

The voices (the ideas world) that live on each art praxis are -in this sense- like a tongue talking, singing, making poetry, making questions, but... we need an ear on the other side, of course.

Art (visual language) is not "made", for me.
Art (visual language) is a political experience, because is putting in the real time and space the "not yet existing worlds". And this potence of art is an interaction from the begining. 
Is not a question of "audience". Also is not a question of supports. 
These status are part of a cultural vision that work in a consume society.
But our challenge is to built new relations, new ways of putting in contact the differents subjectivities.

In Argentina, during the crisis, some fissures were open on this herarchies on the art field. The first was the context of art.
Artists could create their context, we are not remote control robots going to the market, only.
Another intense fissure was the idea of representation. The artists and the images don't pretend to be a representation, they are presences.

After 11-9 (the same year of our big crisis) we can't continue with representation. 

A big challenge now is how not to close these fissures and to open them more and more. 

One of the friends talks also about education. The connection between the idea of research and education. That's good for me. 
Is not an isolated work of artists that "made" art for whom...
is also a social work (and education - art education is a big question today also), a social compromise to create more and different bridges between the persons. Is, a big fight against the capitalistic culture that only creates a logic of art consumers.

all the best,
eduardo

Eduardo Molinari / Archivo Caminante
Aramburu 880, Dto.1 (1640) Martínez
Provincia de Buenos Aires – Argentina
0541 1 47 98 48 35

--- El mié 7-may-08, sdv at krokodile.co.uk <sdv at krokodile.co.uk> escribió:

> De: sdv at krokodile.co.uk <sdv at krokodile.co.uk>
> Asunto: Re: [-empyre-] For whom is art "made"?
> Para: "soft_skinned_space" <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Fecha: miércoles, 7 de mayo de 2008, 3:04 pm
> Helen/Brad/All
> 
> I suppose the problem with your understanding of artist and
> audience is 
> that I cannot see exactly why should I regard your
> understanding of your 
> proposed audience, as being any better than a
> professionally curated 
> art-institution such as Tate-Modern or Whitechapel. Where
> you propose a 
> difference between new media workers as creators and oppose
> this to one 
> that art-institutions support,  is this difference real ?
> Perhaps only 
> an artist might imagine that the former is more democratic
> and public 
> than the latter.
> 
> s
> 
> Helen Thorington wrote:
> > Wow, Brad.  Yes, too much art is made for
> art-institutions, and it
> > saddens me to see it as a direction some of the
> artists we have dealt 
> > with over the years are
> > taking. But if you check out the networked_performance
> blog -- an 
> > archive of networked
> > projects since 2004, you'll see that thousands of
> creative people are 
> > in fact creating
> > work for themselves and for others like themselves --
> not for 
> > art-institutions. A lot of it is
> > "open" work.  Many of the people doing this
> do not identify as 
> > artists,  So question: can
> > academics open to the change that has brought
> thousands into the new 
> > media field as creators
> > of open, participatory work. Or will they stick with
> an older idea of 
> > artist -- the one the art institutions
> > support?
> >
> > BTW, many of the projects I'm thinking about make
> use of  familiar 
> > objects and things
> > from everyday life. They thus "offer a return to
> the connection of art 
> > and life.." [Landy],
> > which for many is most welcome.
> >
> > Helen
> >
> >
> >
> > On May 6, 2008, at 2:42 PM, { brad brace } wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> That's the problem Megan... AArt is
> determinately-made for
> >> art-institutions and the plethora of art-minyons
> and
> >> acolytes who profit-from-it and
> >>
> say-everything's-ok-as-long-as-they-get-paid...
> Basically,
> >> if it's called Art it's really not.
> I'm sorry but you have
> >> no viable future... maybe that's called
> 'AArt-History.'
> >>
> >>
> >> /:b
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Tue, 6 May 2008, Megan Debin wrote:
> >>
> >>> First of all, thanks to Jennifer and to all
> for introducing me to an
> >>> interesting community of discussion.  I would
> like to introduce a 
> >>> new topic
> >>> about audience and the public in general.
> >>>
> >>> For a long while, I have, for reasons
> unbeknownst to me, been 
> >>> resistant to
> >>> Jennifer's urges to check out
> errorista's work.  I hadn't quite 
> >>> figured out
> >>> why I felt this resistance until today. 
> *Light bulb!** * I am 
> >>> afraid of not
> >>> understanding.  I have an intense fear of
> being wrong – a truly
> >>> anti-errorista sentiment – that what these
> artists do will be beyond my
> >>> mental grasp.  As I have learned from
> errorista, there is no wrong
> >>> answer.  There
> >>> is right in the mistake.  All this
> self-doubt... and I'm in academia!
> >>>
> >>> So, this got me to thinking about an
> often-forgotten segment of our
> >>> population: the general public.  The everyday
> person, when asked 
> >>> about their
> >>> thoughts on art, usually thinks things such
> as, "I don't understand 
> >>> anything
> >>> about art," or "Maybe if someone
> explained it to me, I might get 
> >>> it.  But
> >>> probably not."  How have we lost touch
> with the audience?
> >>>
> >>> My questions to the empyre community are
> these: How does current art
> >>> production relate to the general public, to
> the Joe Shmoe on the 
> >>> street?  How
> >>> is the public *really *involved?   Shall we
> sit in our ivory towers 
> >>> and wax
> >>> philosophical, using complicated terminology
> that most of the 
> >>> general public
> >>> does not understand?  That *is* our job,
> right?  How can artists and 
> >>> critics
> >>> reclaim a true relationship with the people? 
> Why do we have these
> >>> discussions?  How does it relate to the larger
> population? And a 
> >>> critical
> >>> one: For whom is art made?
> >>>
> >>> P.S. By the way, I checked out errorista. 
> It's witty, ingenious, 
> >>> all right
> >>> and wrong all at once. I love it.
> >>>
> >>> -- 
> >>> Megan Lorraine Debin
> >>> M.A. Latin American Studies, UCLA
> >>> meganldebin at gmail.com
> >>>
> >>> "Art is not a mirror held up to reality,
> but a hammer with which to 
> >>> shape
> >>> it" -Vladimir Mayakovski
> >>
> <gip2.txt>_______________________________________________
> >> empyre forum
> >> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> >> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > empyre forum
> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> >
> >
> 
> _______________________________________________
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