[Blake_Stimson,_Gregory_Sholette]_Collectivism_aft(z-lib
8. The Production of Social Space asArtwork: Protocols of Communityin the Work of Le GroupeAmos and Huit FacettesOKWUI ENWEZORRecent confrontations within the Weld of contemporary art haveprecipitated an awareness that there have emerged in increasing numbers,within the last decade, new critical, artistic formations that foreground andprivilege the mode of collective and collaborative production. The positionof the artist working within collective and collaborative processes subtendsearlier manifestations of this type of activity throughout the twentieth century.They also question the enduring legacy of the artist as an autonomousindividual within modernist art. In this essay, I address the question of collectivizationof artistic production Wrst in terms of its immanence within thecritical vicissitudes of modernist and postmodernist discourses, especially inthe questions they pose on what an authentic work of art and author is. Second,in offering as my examples two critical positions from Africa, I shalladdress the question of the authenticity of the African artist within the Weldof contemporary art. On both levels, I would argue that the anxieties thatcircumscribe questions concerning the authenticity of either the work of artor the supremacy of the artist as author are symptomatic of a cyclical crisisin modernity about the status of art to its social context and the artist asmore than an actor within the economic sphere. This crisis has been exceptionallyvisible since the rise of the modernist avant-garde in the twentiethcentury. For it is the avant-garde that time and again has tested the faithand power we invest in both the idealized nature of the unique artwork andthe power of the artist as author.Collective work complicates further modernism’s idealization ofthe artwork as the unique object of individual creativity. In collective workwe witness the simultaneous aporia of artwork and artist. This tends to lendcollective work a social rather than artistic character. Consequently, the223
224 Okwui Enwezorcollective imaginary has often been understood as essentially political inorientation with minimal artistic instrumentality. In other instances sharedlabor, collaborative practice, and the collective conceptualization of artisticwork have been understood as the critique of the reiWcation of art and thecommodiWcation of the artist. Though collaborative or collective work haslong been accepted as normal in the kind of artistic production that requiresensemble work, such as music, in the context of visual art under which theindividual artistic talent reigns such loss of singularity of the artist is muchless the norm, particularly under the operative conditions of capitalism.Over the centuries there have been different kinds of groupings ofartists in guilds, associations, unions, workshops, schools, movements. However,each of these instances always recognized the individual artist as thesine qua non of such associational belonging. In fact, the idea of ensembleor collective work for the visual artist under capitalism is anathema to thetraditional ideal of the artist as author whose work purportedly exhibits themark of her unique artistry. The very positivistic identiWcation of the artistas author leads to a crucial differentiation, one that represents the historicaldialectic under which modern art and artists have been deWned: the formeron the basis of originality, qua authenticity, of the work of art and thelatter on the authority and singularity of the artist as an individual talentand genius. To designate a work as the product of a collective practice in aworld that privileges and worships individuality raises a number of vexingissues concerning the nature and practice of art.To the extent the discourse of collectivity has been circumscribedby the above issues, debates on today’s collective artistic formations and collaborativepractices tend to be unconcerned with the questions of “who isan artist?” 1 and “what is an author?” 2 The current positive reception of collectivity,in fact its very fashionability, may have something to do with thehistorical amnesia under which its recent revival operates. While collectivityportends a welcome expansion of the critical regimes of the current contemporaryart context that has been under the pernicious sway of money, aspeculative art market, and conservative politics to make common cause withits counterintuitive positionality and therefore avoid participation in thecooption and appropriation of its criticality, it is important to connect collectivitytoday to its historical genealogy. This may mean going as far backas the Paris Commune of the 1860s, the socialist collectives of the RussianRevolution in 1917, the subversive developments of Dada, the radical interventionsof “neo-avant-garde” movements such as the Situationist International,and activist-based practices connected to issues of class, gender, andrace. The nature of collectivity extends also into the political horizon constructedby the emancipatory projects of the liberation movements of the
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224 Okwui Enwezor
collective imaginary has often been understood as essentially political in
orientation with minimal artistic instrumentality. In other instances shared
labor, collaborative practice, and the collective conceptualization of artistic
work have been understood as the critique of the reiWcation of art and the
commodiWcation of the artist. Though collaborative or collective work has
long been accepted as normal in the kind of artistic production that requires
ensemble work, such as music, in the context of visual art under which the
individual artistic talent reigns such loss of singularity of the artist is much
less the norm, particularly under the operative conditions of capitalism.
Over the centuries there have been different kinds of groupings of
artists in guilds, associations, unions, workshops, schools, movements. However,
each of these instances always recognized the individual artist as the
sine qua non of such associational belonging. In fact, the idea of ensemble
or collective work for the visual artist under capitalism is anathema to the
traditional ideal of the artist as author whose work purportedly exhibits the
mark of her unique artistry. The very positivistic identiWcation of the artist
as author leads to a crucial differentiation, one that represents the historical
dialectic under which modern art and artists have been deWned: the former
on the basis of originality, qua authenticity, of the work of art and the
latter on the authority and singularity of the artist as an individual talent
and genius. To designate a work as the product of a collective practice in a
world that privileges and worships individuality raises a number of vexing
issues concerning the nature and practice of art.
To the extent the discourse of collectivity has been circumscribed
by the above issues, debates on today’s collective artistic formations and collaborative
practices tend to be unconcerned with the questions of “who is
an artist?” 1 and “what is an author?” 2 The current positive reception of collectivity,
in fact its very fashionability, may have something to do with the
historical amnesia under which its recent revival operates. While collectivity
portends a welcome expansion of the critical regimes of the current contemporary
art context that has been under the pernicious sway of money, a
speculative art market, and conservative politics to make common cause with
its counterintuitive positionality and therefore avoid participation in the
cooption and appropriation of its criticality, it is important to connect collectivity
today to its historical genealogy. This may mean going as far back
as the Paris Commune of the 1860s, the socialist collectives of the Russian
Revolution in 1917, the subversive developments of Dada, the radical interventions
of “neo-avant-garde” movements such as the Situationist International,
and activist-based practices connected to issues of class, gender, and
race. The nature of collectivity extends also into the political horizon constructed
by the emancipatory projects of the liberation movements of the