Page 106 - ARTE!Brasileiros #38

ART AS RESISTANCE ENGLISH VERSION

pressured cultural institutions to take a stance against the war For the researcher, the difference is that, previously, social and
and the military decisions of the recently elected president, political criticism were implicit in the artworks themselves. “Today
Richard Nixon. the resistance is much more present in the activism than in the works
Nearly fifty years after the episode, American artists once again themselves. When the artist says “Temer Out,” he is not producing
take up more direct political stances, rallying against the actions an aesthetic object, it’s a movement. There are few productions
of the Republican Donald Trump, who took office as president of that address this.”
the United States on January 20, and shortly after set in motion Chaia believes that this transformation is neither positive nor
several of his socially and economically discriminating promises. negative, only a reflex of a new situation. “We see today urgency
Performances, posters and petitions were mustered, creating for expression; things happen very fast, it is not like the case of
an intersection between art and political protest, especially Picasso’s Guernica, which was a response to a long war.” He also
in face of an executive order, signed in February, that banned mentions the social networks as an important mobilization tool,
Muslims from entering the country. allowing people to take stances quickly. “Even with the rise of
The British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor, for instance, conceived politicians like Trump, there is no censorship and there is even space
a work inspired in the poster of the iconic performance I Like for people to express themselves. Earlier, criticism (by artists) over
America and America Likes Me, by the German artist Joseph a political context had to be expressed through the artwork itself,
Beuys. Kapoor recreated the poster, adding his own image to there was no other way.”
the work and renaming it I Like America and America Doesn’t Another element mentioned by the researcher is the emergence
Like Me. of several artist collectives: “This is not the time of an avant-
Another important representative of contemporary art, Christo garde pointing toward a single direction, these are several groups
gave up on a project in the state of Colorado. The artist was expressing themselves.” Rolnik also comments on this new situation:
developing a silver awning that stretched along 68 kilometers “Since the 1990s, activism started to distance itself from traditional
over the Arkansas River. However, the work would benefit a militancy and incorporate new forms. This takes place in several
federal property, and after Trump took office, the artist decided instances, including art. Today activism and art are interconnected.
to stop the project, in which he had already invested €14 million. It’s not like in the 1960s, when cultural practice was kept on one
Other names such as Barbara Kruger, Richard Serra and Richard side and militancy on the other.”
Prince also manifested themselves. Chaia points out that it is increasingly harder to define what
In addition to artists, several cultural institutions stood against is art or politics. “They are polysemic concepts, any closed
the actions of the current president. MoMA even removed from definition is impossible. And what’s interesting is that today,
their walls artworks from its permanent collection, replacing just as art is approaching politics, the opposite is also true.
them with works of artists from Muslim countries (Iran, Iraq, Doria, for instance, is performing when he dresses as a street
Libya, Somalia and Sudan), whose citizens were put on the sweeper. And, even further, when he launches the Cidade Limpa
banned list. Out of the fifth floor were Picasso, Matisse and (Beautiful City) program, there’s a whole conception of aesthetic,
Picabia; in, almost as an act of provocation, were works from of beauty, which bears a very dangerous, authoritarian sense,”
the Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid and the Sudanese painter he claims.
Ibrahim el-Salahi. The topic of art as resistance will be on debate in the next edition
In an interview to ARTE!Brasileiros, the sociologist Miguel Chaia of TALKS, a series of debates organized by ARTE!Brasileiros in
says he was surprised with the museum’s attitude. “Because they partnership with SP-Arte. The event will be held on April 6–7 in the
work inside the order, institutions tend to act as an element of auditorium of the Bienal de São Paulo building. More information
control. It’s the artists, not the museums that usually protest. But will be available soon on the magazine website.
there are moments of exception such as this one with MoMA.”
1 | UNTITLED (1963), BY IRANIAN ARTIST MARCOS GRIGORIAN
ART AND RESISTANCE
This large amount of expressions brought once again into light 2 | OPPOSITE, POSTER PART OF THE SERIES WE THE PEOPLE, BY SHEPARD FAIREY. TOP, FRAME
the idea of the place of art as a space of resistance. This was FROM THE VIDEO CHIT CHAT (2007), BY IRANIAN ARTIST TALA MADANI
present in numerous moments in history. In an interview to the
magazine, the psychoanalyst Suely Rolnik says that art may be a DOCUMENTA LEARNING FROM ATHENS | PAGES 40 AND 41
form of militancy and serve as a vehicle for a political message.
political potency. “In the Western, capitalist and colonized society, DOCUMENTA EXPANDS
However, there is a deeper dimension Rolnik calls the art’s
potency. As a result, the only human activity in which is possible ITS BOARDERS TO ATHENS
we lost touch with traditional knowledge and nature’s creative
to maintain this germination is art.” For the psychoanalyst
resistance, therefore, lies in the very act of creation. FOR THE FIRST TIME, TWO CITIES WILL HOUSE THE EXHIBITION HELD
Rolnik points out that, still, with the consolidation of neoliberalism EVERY FIVE YEARS; IN THIS EDITION, KASSEL, IN GERMANY, SHARES THE
in the 1980s, the capital starts to appropriate even art. “Today
the capital inserts itself much more subtly and perversely than SHOW’S HEADQUARTERS WITH THE GREEK CAPITAL
before. Because it feeds on the power of creation itself and,
in this sense, art took a beating. When the artistic community BY FABIO CYPRIANO
realized it, it stirred things up, what remains to date.”
Chaia agrees that what prevails now is a type of production SPLIT BETWEEN ATHENS AND KASSEL, the documenta 14 opens
that is close to activism. “The relationship between art and on April 8 in the Greek capital, with several innovations in its format.
politics depends on the historical moment. With the rise of Held every five years in Kassel, Germany, the show has become
Trump, and even Temer, we are facing a politicization of art. the most important contemporary art event in the world,
Today the artist is empowered as an activist and a citizen precisely because it reconsiders the parameters of the meaning
acting on the public space.” of an exhibition.

Book_ARTE_38_POR.indb 106 3/3/17 9:52 PM