Beatrix Ruf
Welche Kunst...? Beatrix Ruf uses a sophisticated style and fine irony (which this synopsis cannot transmit) reminding us of the essential functions of art for a society: art as a means of cultural reflection, often at the same time a source of delight and delightful discourse about our own culture. Art is, time and again, reflecting its own means and its relation to the institutions of art, and this is a form of cultural self-reflection too. While some of art's functions are rather ephemeral and historically changing (such as avantgardism, cult of the genius), others are essential, such as picture making and the questioning of society's conceptual framework. Yet, in contemporary society there are strong tendencies to use art in different ways, based on fragmented and misunderstood aspects of art. Art is being used particularly to differentiate and present wealth, as a commodity distinguished by style, novelty or exclusivity in a growing and increasingly specialised market. The media and art market institutions make interrelated decisions about the frequency of public appearance and the value of the art being sold. The musea merely become storage containers for the past of the art, "free" from their former task of evaluation and discourse. Even if these tendencies might only be temporary they will cause a shift in the role and perception of art. Art will be used as a means of escape from reality, as a kind of drug providing the "kick" of individualized personality within mass society, of "original" emotion which contrasts with the prefabricated feelings produced by the mass media. Yet, somewhere on the horizon, there is the vision of a society of autonomous individuals who perceive and use reality free from the restricted perspectives of globalization, post-gender, post-nationalism etc. Within this framework, there is a vision of a different role of art, independent from trends, without regard to different media and fields of action, and not reduced to only some of its characteristics. Art then will produce pictures of the social, economic, political and human phenomena of its time, and not the future, and these pictures will be worthwhile. |
