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

Wed May 14 09:36:33 EST 2008

Thank you very much for your words dear Sergio!
is a pleasure to read your ideas.

hard work to make art today.
"under control" art, 
but... still art.

I mean, art's potence is alive.

like you said, more corporate money (not state money)
is trying to "normalize" art, 
but is possible to do this in a total way?
I don't think so.

you put very intensive examples of art history.

thank you!
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 lun 12-may-08, sergio basbaum <sbasbaum at gmail.com> escribió:

> De: sergio basbaum <sbasbaum at gmail.com>
> Asunto: Re: [-empyre-] For whom is art "made"?
> Para: archivocaminante at yahoo.com.ar, "soft_skinned_space" <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Fecha: lunes, 12 de mayo de 2008, 7:13 pm
> Dear all empyreans,
> 
> It's a lot of time since my last contribuition to this
> community. I
> just would like to make a few remarks on this problem of
> "who is art
> for".  I'd like to suggest some ideas that I
> believe should be
> considered:
> 
> 1) art is made for those who have need of it; it's
> always been a
> paradox that many art works commited with different kinds
> of freedom
> operations have been understood just by a minority of
> people. However,
> art is not supposed to be entertainment, a Bienal is not a
> Disneyland;
> 
> 2) art is adressed to different audiences, it depends on
> who the
> artist wants to talk to, and this kind of consideration may
> interfere
> in the decisions concerning creative choices: although it
> may sound
> weird for some, it is possible to be an artist in large
> massive
> difusion sistems, just like in pop or rock music circuits,
> or comecial
> cinema -- although there's a price to pay when you
> decide to address
> such large audiences and to inhabit such production
> circuits -- it is
> an entirely different game to play. Madonna plays it very
> well, be her
> a good artist or not. On the other hand, if you consider
> Lygia Clark
> in Brazil, bringing schizophrenic people inside her home to
> experiment
> her "therapy"devices, it is an absolutely
> different choice; or Helio
> Oiticica, bringing a Samba School into de Museum of Modern
> Art in the
> 1960s; or Ricardo Basbaum with his object which travels
> world wide to
> be signified by one person or one group at a time; or Joao
> Modé with
> his "Rede" crafted with the collective
> contribuitions of a whole
> community, with different genders, ethnics or social
> classes engaged
> in weaving a collective net. So, in this sense, art is made
> for whom
> the artist wants to speak to;
> 
> 3) if we believe in art works, one must consider what did
> they mean as
> a symbol of the supposed "individual freedom" in
> capitalism during
> Cold War: to have worderfull and highly sponsored Biennals
> and
> exhibitions, showing all kinds of poetic decisions and
> creative
> strategies has indeed been a way to show such an image of
> this side of
> the wall -- for the other side of the wall and for
> ourselves. So, it
> doesn't matter how much we believe that artists have
> been autonomous,
> they have been appropriated by power structures and used to
> promote a
> system of power. It is easy to notice how fast public
> sponsoring
> growingly disappears from all important exhibitions
> starting from the
> early 1990s on, when art has lost this kind of role in the
> global
> political arena. It will thus be more and more dependent on
> corporate
> money. However, the fact that they have been used in such
> disturbing
> opperations of ideological propaganda does not diminish art
> works' and
> gestures' strenghth in making experience and thinking
> radically
> different possibilities and landscapes of the present, thus
> creating a
> singular field of knowledge which is perpassed by all other
> fields but
> cannot be determined by none. By inhabiting this space
> oppened by
> Cold-War struggles, art has enlarged our landscape of
> reality with all
> kinds of clandestin discourses, different subjectivities,
> thus forcing
> a "partage du sensible" to happen in completely
> unexpected and
> unplanned and also quite uncontrolled ways -- thus
> multiplying the
> ways of making meaning of our world;
> 
> 4) Given this, and given the political expectations that
> many hold
> concerning the immediate impact of artistic propositions,
> one should
> not think that art, for itself, will save our world; what
> is more
> important is to understand that, without it, there's
> not much to save,
> since the world will be turned into an enormous controlled
> and
> surveilled productive and funcional "inteligent"
> anthill.
> 
> warm whishs from Brazil
> 
> s
> 
> --
> 
> On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 9:44 AM, Eduardo Molinari
> <archivocaminante at yahoo.com.ar> wrote:
> > I'm with you GH,
> > when I talk about "images", I was tryng to
> > say that we are talking about visual art... today,
> > and today image-sound-words are visual art.
> > But, all these tools, also our bodies,
> > are our competence inside of contemporary visual art
> sistem.
> > I mean, is not teather, dance, music field.
> > I'm not tryng to divide for nothing,
> > but is hard to think about "art" without
> > some specifications.
> > Also, is still no clear if we are talking
> > about private or public culture, in your words.
> >
> > About "manufacturing". Yes, I know that
> sounds capitalistic,
> > but is not the sense for me of this expression.
> > I'm tryng to be incisive with the concept of
> "cultural industry",
> > because this is a blanket that covers our work,
> > specially in the "third world".
> > An industry without workers? an industry without
> manufactures?
> > is a border, I know, but is a tool for our discussion,
> > because our "manufactures", our
> "work"
> > could be defined with another words, but...
> > how lives an artist?
> >
> > is a little funny that we don't like to
> "manufacture" images,
> > but we like to "sell" them?
> >
> > GH, is really good to think together about this point,
> > thank you very much.
> >
> > eduardo
> >
> >
> >
> > Eduardo Molinari / Archivo Caminante
> > Aramburu 880, Dto.1 (1640) Martínez
> > Provincia de Buenos Aires – Argentina
> > 0541 1 47 98 48 35
> >
> >
> > --- El sáb 10-may-08, G.H. Hovagimyan
> <ghh at thing.net> escribió:
> >
> > > De: G.H. Hovagimyan <ghh at thing.net>
> >
> > > Asunto: Re: [-empyre-] For whom is art
> "made"?
> > > Para: "soft_skinned_space"
> <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> > > Fecha: sábado, 10 de mayo de 2008, 10:22 am
> >
> >
> >
> > > >  think that is better to define this. My
> answer is
> > > trying to think
> > > > about this: manufacturing images today.
> > >
> > > gh comments:
> > >
> > >   I  disagree with this idea.  Art can be made
> from sound
> > > for example
> > > or text or interventions that have no images
> other than an
> > > incidental
> > > documentary image.  I even dislike the idea of
> > > "manufacturing."  It
> > > represents a capitalist notion of making of
> objects to be
> > > used as a
> > > commodity in the art market.  Indeed, the most
> advanced art
> > > ideas try
> > > to neutralize the market and dispense with a
> fixed object/
> > > image. The
> > > actual process is to enhance the creative
> experience for
> > > the artist
> > > and those who participate in the process.
> It's a
> > > misnomer to call this
> > > interactive art.  It may be more about creative
> situations.
> > >  It's not
> > > about all the world becoming artists.  Thats
> another market
> > > ploy. That
> > > odd notion is what is at the core of web 2.0 .
> The only
> > > possible
> > > position for an artists is to define themselves
> in
> > > contradiction to
> > > these notions.
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > empyre forum
> > > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> >
> >
> >
> >      Yahoo! Encuentros.
> >
> > Ahora encontrar pareja es mucho más fácil, probá el
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> > _______________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
> > empyre forum
> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -- Prof. Dr. Sérgio Roclaw Basbaum
> -- Coord. Tecnologia e Mídias Digitais
> -- Pós-Graduação Tec.da Inteligência e Design Digital -
> TIDD (PUC-SP)

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