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+ (presences of art)<br />
general vorbind, al filosofiei. Extenuat de atîtea ræzboaie, epuizat de atîtea<br />
præpæduri øi mizerii, omul din Apus s-a anesteziat în ciclonul inedit al<br />
consumismului øi a sfîrøit prin a abdica de la reperele etice impuse de concepflia<br />
clasicæ a progresului, ce implica educaflia moralæ, strædania minuflioasæ,<br />
un echilibru între funcflionalul tehnic, utilitarismul financiar øi comercial<br />
øi Frumosul ca valoare universalæ neutilitaræ.<br />
Democraflia de masæ contemporanæ, împlinitæ sub semnul societæflii de<br />
consum – ceea ce ventrilocii gîndirii liberale numesc sfîrøitul istoriei –, pune<br />
laolaltæ øi face sæ coincidæ etica socialæ cu cæutarea freneticæ a bunæstærii<br />
materiale imediate, în care calitatea devenirii oamenilor are ca mæsuræ gestionarea<br />
precaritæflii locurilor de muncæ, a împrumuturilor pentru nevoi<br />
domestice, a timpului liber anteprogramat. Estetica øi, în general, cultura<br />
au ajuns sæ fie obiect contabil pe o piaflæ giganticæ, ce funcflioneazæ de acum<br />
încolo sub imperiul plusvalorii øi al luptei permanente împotriva scæderii<br />
tendenfliale a ratei profitului. Triumf al informafliei-uniformizærii, ce se<br />
ilustreazæ ca nonexperienflæ a lumii, øi al publicitæflii, ca estetizare a mærfii.<br />
Præbuøire a utopiilor, sfîrøit al filosofiei, al avangardelor, toate pecetluiesc<br />
simultan victoria absolutæ a utilitarismului, în toate formele lui: al celui<br />
din øtiinflele sociale ca profilaxie øi ortopedie socialæ, economicæ øi politicæ;<br />
al celui privind dezvoltarea tehnicæ infinitæ ca împlinire øi perenitate a fericirii;<br />
al celui al limbii, sterilizatæ øi devenitæ simulacru de adevær al comunicærii.<br />
Lumea occidentalæ e prinsæ într-o agitaflie freneticæ, în ochiul unui ciclon<br />
mediatic øi spectacular ce scapæ tot mai mult controlului celor ce l-au provocat.<br />
Cît despre spectatori (majoritatea dintre noi), strigoi buimaci, fantome<br />
halucinante øi minfli abrutizate, ei se dedau befliei lucrurilor înmulflite, a imaginilor,<br />
sunetelor, zgomotelor electronice øi încearcæ sæ uite, în beløugul clipei<br />
de faflæ, ameninflarea unei precaritæfli implacabile, mereu de faflæ, ascunsæ<br />
în apropiere, øi totodatæ neputincioasæ în a trezi conøtiinflele amorflite<br />
de atîta cacofonie. Folosindu-ne care mai de care de soluflii cosmetice în<br />
încercarea de a depæøi condiflia noastræ limitatæ de muritori prin <strong>idea</strong>lul<br />
tinereflii veønice pe pæmînt, ne-am trezit, pentru prima oaræ în istoria Occidentului,<br />
confruntafli cu noi înøine, ca niøte sclavi îndopafli cu bunætæfli øi cu<br />
noutæfli de tot felul, mizînd totul pe o mizerie spiritualæ nemaiîntîlnitæ. Rætæcifli<br />
în mirajele metafizicii, negînd realul în folosul dublului sæu <strong>idea</strong>l, moøtenitorii<br />
tîrzii ai filosofiei epocii Luminilor uitæ sæ priveascæ modernitatea øi sæ-i<br />
asculte mesajul în esenfla lui tehnicæ øi mercantilæ, cu alte cuvinte, în generalizarea<br />
diviziunii muncii ca fundament al socialului øi al politicului øi, mai<br />
departe, al oricærei activitæfli umane, inclusiv arta, chiar dacæ aceasta nu-i<br />
decît expresia cea mai tragicæ sau mai derizorie a ei. Aceasta e întemeierea<br />
pe care o împlineøte arta modernitæflii tîrzii în expresia estetico-politicæ radicalæ<br />
a producfliei, vînzærii øi consumului.<br />
3. Artæ øi societate<br />
Nu existæ totuøi niciun mijloc de a salva nonutilitarismul artei? La drept vorbind,<br />
însæøi deriziunea ei nu ne poate scoate, oare, din mizeria spiritualæ?<br />
Øi nu pæstreazæ arta ultima frînturæ de mister omenesc, pe care secularizarea<br />
generalæ a lumii l-a fæcut sæ disparæ în folosul experienflei progresului,<br />
redusæ la lucrurile ce se pot mæsura în împrejurærile cotidiene cele mai<br />
triviale?<br />
Odatæ proclamatæ moartea lui Dumnezeu, artistului îi revenea obligaflia<br />
de temut de a aræta lumii prezenfla nonutilitarului ca ultimæ posibilitate a<br />
unei mîntuiri. Injoncfliunile, provocærile øi admonestærile avangardelor,<br />
immediate material welfare in which people’s becoming translates into the management<br />
of the precariousness of the jobs, of the domestic loans, of the spare<br />
time programmed in advance. Aesthetics and, generally speaking, culture<br />
became the object of accounting on a gigantic market working from now on<br />
according to surplus value and the permanent struggle against the tendency<br />
of the rate of profit to fall. It’s a triumph of in<strong>format</strong>ion-levelling, which reveals<br />
itself as a non-experience of the world, and of advertising, as an aesthetization<br />
of the goods. A collapse of utopias, end of philosophy, of avant-gardes, they all<br />
mark the simultaneous (and absolute) victory of utilitarianism, in its every form:<br />
that of social sciences as prophylaxis and social, economical and political orthopaedics,<br />
that of the infinite technical development as accomplishment and<br />
precariousness of happiness, that of language, sterilized and turned into a simulacrum<br />
of truth of communication. Western world is caught up in a frantic effervescence,<br />
into the eye of a media storm which escapes ever more the control<br />
of those who caused it. As for the spectators, (most of us), giddy ghosts, hallucinatory<br />
phantoms and imbruted minds, they indulge in the exhilaration of multiplied<br />
things, of electronic images, sounds and noises and try to forget, in the<br />
abundance of the moment, the threat of an implacable precariousness, always<br />
present, hidden and at the same time incapable of awaking the consciences<br />
benumbed by so much cacophony. By using all kinds of cosmetic solutions in trying<br />
to overcome our limited mortal condition through the <strong>idea</strong>l of the everlasting<br />
youth on earth, we found ourselves, for the first time in the history of the<br />
West, confronting ourselves, like slaves force-fed with goodies and novelties of<br />
all sorts, on the brink of an unprecedented spiritual misery. Lost in the mirage<br />
of metaphysics, denying reality in favour of its <strong>idea</strong>l double, the late inheritors<br />
of the philosophy of the Enlightenment fail to look at modernity and to listen to<br />
its message in its technical and mercantile essence, in other words, as generalisation<br />
of labour as foundation of the social and politic domain and further on<br />
of any human activity including art, even though it is only its tragic or risible<br />
expression. It is exactly this establishment that late modern art brings forth, as<br />
a radical aesthetical-political expression of production, selling and consumption.<br />
3. Art and Society<br />
Is there any way to save the non-utilitarianism of art? As a matter of fact, is it<br />
not possible for the very risible character of it to bail us out of the spiritual misery?<br />
And does art not retain the last piece of human mystery, which the overall<br />
secularisation of the world made to disappear in favour of the experience of the<br />
progress, reduced to the things which may be measured in the most trivial quotidian<br />
situations?<br />
Once the death of God was proclaimed, it was the artist’s fearful obligation<br />
to show the world that the presence of non-utilitarianism is the last chance of<br />
redemption. The injunctions, the challenges and the admonitions of the avantgardes,<br />
the premonitory images signalling great catastrophes, their fury against<br />
the establishment of a generalised conformism, peculiar to a society living in<br />
abundance, forebode the victory of the “absolute vacuum” without avoiding the<br />
traps of the barbaric mercantilism. I remember the Good Friday in 1989 when,<br />
on my return from Beaubourg, I passed by the Saint Merry church where the<br />
Crossway Mess was being celebrated. I entered out of curiosity and I saw how<br />
empty the house of the Lord was. Only a few tourists and local senior citizens<br />
were listening to the priest chanting his litanies, one by one. Tens of metres<br />
away, hundreds of people were queuing to enter the temple of modern art.<br />
A sign of our times! What else could they have done?<br />
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