20 Dec 2007
by dylan
by dylan
The possibility of a relational art (an art taking as its theoretical horizon the realm of human interactions and its social context, rather than the assertion of an independent and private symbolic space), points to a radical upheaval of the aesthetic, cultural and political goals introduced by modern art.
It is no longer possible to regard contemporary work as a space to be walked through…It is henceforth presented as a period of time to be lived through, like an opening to unlimited discussion…Once raised to the power of an absolute rule of civilisation, this system of intensive encounters has ended up producing linked artistic practices: an art form where the substrate is formed by intersubjectivity, and which takes being-together as a central theme, the “encounter” between beholder and picture, and the collective elaboration of meaning.
Over and above its mercantile nature and its semantic value, the work of art represents a social interstice. This interstice term was used by Karl Marx to describe trading communities that elude the capitalist economic context by being removed from the law of profit: barter, merchandising, autarkic types of production, etc. The interstice is a space in human relations which fits more or less harmoniously and openly into the overall system, but suggests other trading possibilities than those in effect within the system.
Aesthetics
An idea that sets humankind apart from other animal species. In the end of the day, burying the dead, laughter, and suicide are just the corrollaries of a deep-seated hunch, the hunch that life is an aesthetic, ritualised, shaped form.
It’s all excerpted out of context, but the book is a legible and thoroughly convincing read, full of exciting, powerful ideas.
