feature WHAT IS ART FOR?
Words Nicolas Bourriaud
undoubtedly, one of the most enigmatic statements made by dog, a canary or an anthill, the world is continuous, our good fortune as
Marcel Duchamp occurred during a talk in Philadelphia in 1961 entitled humans is to live in an infinite world, which is to say, a secular world of
‘Where do we go from here?’ During it, he denounced the ‘enormous unlimited possibilities. Art is the best tool we have when it comes to
dilution’ of art and the ‘levelling down of present taste’, of which the shattering our environment into an infinite number of imaginary tales,
‘immediate result will be to shroud the near future in mediocrity’. forms and space–times. For example, each human society drafts its
‘In conclusion’, he continued, ‘I hope that this mediocrity, own masterscript: most of the time, we blindly play out its scenarios,
conditioned by too many factors foreign to art per se, will this time which proscribe our behaviour, define our work and play, and provide
bring a revolution on the ascetic level, of which the general public will our institutions and imaginary models: nine-to-five jobs, marriage,
not even be aware and which only a few initiates will develop on the mortgage, retirement… The way art acts on these scenarios, or scraps
fringe of a world blinded by economic fireworks. The great artist of of code, is to reorganise them, by treating them as if they were not
tomorrow will go underground.’ Currently, nothing sounds stranger givens; art is the alternative editing board, the post-production, of the
than such notions of the avant-garde or underground: today everything huge film we call ‘reality’.
comes immediately to the surface, in real time. And yet as with an But before acting in this way, it is necessary to know how to look
exercise book, it is still the margin that defines the page. I returned to and read between the lines; as such, art is also a reading aid. It provides
this question of art’s ‘difference’ at this year’s Venice Biennale, which the instruments and optical equipment that allow us to interpret the
made art into something right-thinking, full of ‘good works’, like a grand world. To take a simple example, it could be said that our relationship
charity gala with a moral aim. Amid this shrouded demagogy the work with reality is like that of a Cabbalist trying to decipher sacred texts by
of two artists stood out, that of Richard Hamilton and Gerard Byrne. inventing multiple ways of reading. I shall not list all of the functions
Although they have different motives and use different means, both of art here; suffice it to say that an artist seems to me to be more
negotiate this problem of temporality. It’s quite possible that the first useful socially than a financial trader. But what does seem clear is
task of art today should be related to temporal writing: a ‘time specific’ that art occupies a specific position in the city, and that this position
art, in the same way that the art of the 1960s privileged the notion of is thus political: it incites its subjects to become active, to refuse the
the ‘site specific’. passive position the world of entertainment tries to foist on them.
Of course while art has always answered to the same purposes Entertainment places us in front of images to be looked at, while social
each era states them differently. For Duchamp, the idea of the formatting provides us with frameworks in which we must live. If artistic
underground was the idea of a space in which artists could re-state activity consists of putting these instruments and products back into
our need for transcendence, an escape from the material world. There play, then the observer’s task is, as in tennis, to knock the ball back into
is nothing religious about this, the functions of art (and of the sacred) the other court.
are no longer expressed in terms of a world still to come. While for a Translation from the French by Ian Monk
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What is art for.indd 58 28/9/07 09:03:05
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