Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

I. Scope
Truth and knowledge in art: Two
I.2
perspectives
2009, Jeremy Deller acquired the rusty
In
of a taxicab that had been destroyed
remains
a suicide bomb in Baghdad two years
in
He towed it on a road trip across
previously.
cities from New York to Los Angeles,
14
it in public places, college campuses
exhibiting
eventually art museums. Accompanying
and
were Iraqi artist Esam Pasha and enlisted
him
soldier Jonathan Harvey. The art project,
US
It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq,
called
art critic writing for the New York
An
Ken Johnson, praised the project’s
Times,
presence” but chose not to call
“sculptural
art, using the term “artefact” instead.
it
insisted on the project’s educational
Johnson
its potential to raise consciousness and
value,
10.2 features an artwork of disputed status
Box
allows important questions to be asked
that
to create space for audiences to engage
aimed
the two experts. It was Deller’s stated
with
to present the project “neutrally” and
intention
the conversation open-ended. His project
keep
much social engagement and many
sparked
drawing a diverse audience.
conversations,
this project at the intersection of art and
Yet,
had a mixed reception among art critics
politics
calling it art would not be doing it
that
reminding viewers that by naming
justice,
project It Is What It Is, Jeremy Deller did
the
necessarily have such artistic pretentions
not
it was deemed by critics as too obvious
While
be art, activists argued that it was too
to
10
about the knowledge people gain from art.
Box 10.2: It is what it is, but is it art?
and activists.
but rather sought to prompt conversation.
possible therapeutic virtues but maintained
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