Re: <documenta X><blast> visual commodity
Bracha Lichtenberg - Ettinger (bracha@easynet.fr)
Mon, 7 Jul 1997 14:12:37 +0200
Olessia, Clifford
Let me try to add a drop to this interesting problem. To do that I will
take up Lyotard. There is no way to escape "commodity", anythinh can loose
its singularity at crtain circumstances and be treatd as an object of
exhchange, as Olessia claims. But at the same time, there is a resistance
in art, there is this kernel (when there is this kernel, it is not always
the case, it is even rare) that Clifford defends, which doesnot fight even
the question of commodity bevause it is beside it an not opposit to it. It
is on another sphere. And the notion of matrixial borderspace tries indeed
to capture or suggest something of this sphere. So Lyotard's point is, that
under whatever circumstances, some art by its own strength and mystery
radiates its singularity, and it is this part that deserves the name art.
This singularity, or "presence" demand nothing. This singularity which
can't become object of social exchange and commodity, the artist pays for
it, but in a different way. And I quote Lyotard from "Doctor and Patient"
(edited by the amazing Viktor and Olessia) Forgive me those who don't know
=46rench, my translation would be too poor, I leave it in the original):
"Ceci seul est certain pour le peintre...c'est qu'il paie l'oeuvre au prix
de ce qu'il est, de son esprit et de son corps tels qu'ils apparaissent et
s'apparaissent, donn=E9s, identifiables. Il lui faut se laisser venir
jusqu'au seuil de ce qui l'exc=E8de."
The function of the work (Ricardo) is to:
"=E9veille dans le regardeur ( le lecteur) une =E2me, qui l'=E9cart=E8le.=
Par =E2me,
j'entends une pens=E9e-corps qui n'existe qu'affect=E9e. Sans lui, le corps
sensori-moteur et le langage ordinaire, c'est-=E0-dire le sujet constitu=E9,
enregistre les colorations comme des informations contextuelles."
Culture exerces its regularizations power over art, and " Sous cette
r=E9gulation, il s'empare du geste scientifique, litt=E9raire et artistique =
en
transcrivant son oeuvre en produit culturel appropri=E9 aux op=E9rations
n=E9cessaires au syst=E8me, circulation, consommation, reproduction. C'est
pourquoi l'=E9valuation des objets culturels se fait en termes de
" r=E9ception ", de " visibilit=E9 ", de succ=E8s : tirages, fr=E9quentation=
,
" retomb=E9es " - tous objets de calcul et mati=E8re =E0 bilan" All works=
can be
thus recycled in the proces of "mise en culture." and regulated as object
of commodity, and yet, it is not in the power of the system to alter the
art's singularity, which hides somewhere else, beyond.
And time Olessia, in this same article Lyotard shows us that Time and
History are two different ideas. But this takes us elsewhere, lets stay
with space.
Bracha