Avignon in Provence is rightly revered for its historic cultural icons, such because the immense Palace of the Popes. However in recent times, Avignon has additionally turn out to be a scorching spot for revolutionary French ‘idea artwork’ or just ‘con artwork.’ Expressing a contempt for the same old gallery-based presentation of artwork, con artwork as a substitute regards the degenerate bodily world as its gallery (certainly, as its subject material) whereas navigating the unavoidable paradox of slender gallery rejection however expansive gallery acceptance. The decision of this obvious paradox is central to the appreciation of con artwork.
Relatively than imprisoning us within the bourgeois paradigm of visiting (say) the Musée d’Orsay, with its insolent insistence that ‘this and solely that is the type of place the place nice artwork occurs,’ we are able to expertise a transcendent liberation by embracing the con artwork perspective that the aware act of curated perceiving can create a way of artwork in and of itself. That’s to say, we could be guided by conceptual artists to mission our perceptions past bodily manifestations to the essence of the idea implied by the matter, if solely we are able to actually see it for what it really is.
As an example, one of many seminal expressions of up to date French idea artwork could also be found in a seemingly-derelict shopfront on nondescript backstreet of Avignon’s outdated city – and with deliciously self-conscious irony, being located just a few moments away from the Palace of the Popes. ‘Idea Retailer’ was an set up created by the Avignon Anarcho-art Collective. The very title of the work itself – the mixture of ‘idea’ and ‘retailer’ – conjures the dialectical battle between the best of the notion of ‘idea’ and the putrid capitalist actuality of the phrase ‘retailer.’ The inherent contradiction that we are able to understand inside the title ‘Idea Retailer’ primes our consciousness for an existential wrestle that expresses itself however by no means fully resolves itself within the artwork set up.
Trying carefully, we are able to see that the very title ‘Idea Retailer’ is expressed in a random assortment of each upper-case and lower-case adhesive plastic lettering, intentionally subverting the standard and ‘appropriate’ option to render that means, whereas retaining its ironic perceptibility. In the meantime, the plate glass of the shop window, which capitalism sometimes expresses as being clear, as if to say ‘there’s nothing between you and your materials wishes (besides cash)’ is definitely revealed as being grubby, dirty and apparently impenetrable for the lots, absent direct motion.
Gazing by means of the grime, we’re confronted with the tawdry stays of lifeless and desiccated foliage, badly swept right into a nook. However the idea and actuality of the uncooked metaphor can’t be hidden from sight, if we select to see. On this soiled nook are capitalism’s even dirtier secrets and techniques uncovered: rapacious deforestation, world warming and tasteless flower arranging.
What’s capitalism’s reply to all of this? As we are able to see, merely a drained roll of masking tape. However no quantity of masking tape can disguise capitalist evil, revive a rainforest, make a vegan sausage tasty or, certainly, mend a damaged coronary heart. Not even the Bee Gees may work out that final one.
And what’s holding all of this collectively from the window-tapping, anarcho-rebelling world exterior? As we are able to see, it’s a concrete window sill: fatally cracked and crudely patched, a mere momentary forestalling of the inevitable corrosion and collapse of the bottom and the smashing of the glassy superstructure. Cautious the place you stroll, now.
Nicely, in the event you imagine any of that garbage, you’re much more cracked than the sill. ‘Con artwork’ certainly.
Wait a minute! Does (or did) the ‘Idea Retailer’ truly exist? Positive… nicely, maybe not precisely as an Anarcho-art Collective set up. However the deserted retailer actually was on a tiny Avignon side-street within the outdated city, reverse a flowery shirt store and a little bit pizza place with purple and white examine tablecloths. That ought to slender it down a bit.
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