Το Bauhaus δεν είναι το σπίτι μας; Το «πνεύμα» της ελεύθερης οικονομίας στην συγκρότηση της σχολής της Βαϊμάρης

Τι θα συνέβαινε αν αντικαθιστούσαμε τον όρο «λιτότητα» μ’ εκείνον του «ασκητισμού»; Σκέφτομαι πως σε ό,τι αφορά το σχεδιασμό στο Bauhaus δεν θα άλλαζαν και πολλά πράγματα. Αν και το ασκητικό στοιχείο αναδεικνύει την ανάγκη του «αφαιρείν» και της «εγκράτειας», αυτό σε καμία περίπτωση δεν εναντιώνεται στη λογική της μαζικής παραγωγής και της τυποποίησης που χαρακτηρίζει την σχολή της Βαϊμάρης. 

Ο παραπάνω λογισμός επιτρέπει να συλλάβουμε τη σημασία της θρησκευτικής επίδρασης στο σχεδιασμό. Από αυτήν την άποψη, έχει ενδιαφέρον να δούμε πώς η συγκρότηση του Bauhausσυνδέεται με τη χριστιανική ηθική για να διαπιστώσουμε επιπρόσθετα πως το διεθνές στιλ(international style) της ιστορικής σύζευξης, δηλαδή της μοντέρνας ευρωπαϊκής με την αμερικανική αρχιτεκτονική, σχετίζεται με την εφαρμογή αυτών των ιδεών στον χτιστό πολιτισμό. Πρόκειται για μια απόπειρα που αφήνει για λίγο την ερμηνεία του καπιταλισμού με εργαλείο την υλικοτεχνική δομή και θέτει ερωτήματα γύρω από τις αξίες πάνω στις οποίες αναπτύσσεται ως οικονομικό σύστημα.

Η ερμηνεία που περιστρέφεται γύρω από τη σχέση του καπιταλισμού με τον χριστιανισμό, ειδικά αυτή που ορίζει την προτεσταντική ηθική ως γενεσιουργό αίτια της οικονομίας των καιρών μας, είναι σχεδόν το ίδιο παλιά όσο και η μαρξιστική (1867). Η ανάλυση αυτής της συγγένειας εμφανίζεται στις αρχές του 20^ού αιώνα και οφείλεται προφανώς στη μελέτη του Μax Weber«Η Προτεσταντική Ηθική και το Πνεύμα του Καπιταλισμού», που εγκαινιάζει την οικονομική κοινωνιολογία.

Αν ο καπιταλισμός, ως ένας τρόπος ορθολογικού σχεδιασμού του συνόλου της ζωής, αφορά περισσότερο από κάθε άλλη οικονομική θεωρία την συσσώρευση και προτάσσει τον ασκητισμό στην καθημερινή συμπεριφορά, τότε μήπως η σχολή του Bauhaus αποτελεί την ακριβέστερη μεταφορά αυτής της αρχής στην αρχιτεκτονική παράδοση; 

Μπορεί ο οικονομικός ρασιοναλισμός να δημιούργησε τις προϋποθέσεις για τη θρησκευτική απομάγευση και τη μετατροπή του bourgeois σε αστό, όπως και για τη σταδιακή αντικατάσταση της υπαίθρου από τη μητροπολιτική εμπειρία, όμως ο προτεσταντισμός ως μια κυρίαρχη έκφραση του σύγχρονης χριστιανικής ηθικής ήταν και παραμένει ενεργός σε όλες τις ιστορικές διαδρομές του νεωτερικού βίου. Αν, μέσα στο οργανωμένο πλαίσιο της νεωτερικής κοινωνίας, χρέος και προορισμός κάθε πολίτη είναι η δικαίωση μέσα από το επάγγελμα, αυτή η εργασιακή υποχρέωση προϋπάρχει και επιβραβεύεται στον προτεσταντισμό. 

Το μορφολογικό πρότυπο του Bauhaus και οι ηθικές του προεκτάσεις δεν αφήνουν πολλά περιθώρια για να θεωρήσουμε τελείως αυθαίρετη τούτη τη σύγκλιση. Όμως αυτό δεν φαίνεται να γίνεται συνειδητό σε όλους όσους η νεωτερική παράδοση αποτελεί αντικείμενο έρευνας. Σκληρή και επίμονη δουλειά, με πλήρη και αποκλειστική προσήλωση στο αντικείμενο, εν ολίγοις ένας ασκητικός βίος, στον οποίο ο καθένας διαλέγει τη δική του «συσσώρευση πλούτου», όταν μάλιστα αυτή η «συσσώρευση» δεν σημαίνει αποκλειστικά την συγκέντρωση χρήματων. Το εν λόγω μοτίβο δεν απουσιάζει από την πρακτική που βλέπουμε καθημερινά γύρω μας. 

Αυτές οι επιλογές σχηματίζουν ένα είδος «προδιάθεσης» στα θεμέλια της μοντέρνας αρχιτεκτονικής. Θα λέγαμε πως προλογίζουν ένα αισθητικό μόρφωμα, το οποίο επικροτεί την αφοσίωση στη δομική επανάληψη, τη γραμμική αυστηρότητα και τη λιτότητα στη φόρμα, την εξίσωση της απλότητας με την άμεση χρηστικότητα. Ο Tom Wolfe, στο γνωστό του λίβελο FromBauhaus to our house, κάποια στιγμή αναφέρεται έστω και αποσπασματικά στην «πουριτανική» αφθονία των ουρανοξυστών από γυαλί και ατσάλι. Δεν σχολιάζει, όμως, περαιτέρω την πιθανή σχέση του πουριτανισμού με τις αρχές της μοντέρνας αρχιτεκτονικής.[i]  

Πολλά χρόνια νωρίτερα, ήταν και πάλι ο Max Weber εκείνος που εξέτασε το πώς η τάση για ομοιομορφία στη ζωή αντανακλάται στην τυποποίηση της παραγωγής, εκεί όπου το ανθρώπινο υποκείμενο υποτάσσεται στην ιδέα του «καθήκοντος»: «Ο άνθρωπος είναι μόνο ο διαχειριστής των αγαθών που ήρθαν σε αυτόν με τη χάρη του θεού. Πρέπει όμως ο δούλος της βίβλου να λογοδοτήσει για κάθε λεπτό που εμπιστευτήκαν σε αυτόν, και είναι τουλάχιστον επικίνδυνο να ξοδεύει κάτι από αυτό για ένα σκοπό που δεν υπηρετεί τη δόξα του πάρα μόνο την απόλαυση».[ii] Στην επόμενη πρόταση, ο Weber απευθύνεται άμεσα στον αναγνώστη και τον ρωτά: «Ποιος, που έχει τα ματιά του ανοικτά, δεν συναντάει εκπροσώπους της αντίληψης αυτής σήμερα;».[iii] Η διατύπωση του Γερμανού οικονομολόγου αναφέρεται βέβαια στις αρχές του 20^ού αιώνα. Όμως και στην 4^η βιομηχανική επανάσταση που βιώνουμε σήμερα η εισχώρηση του ασκητισμού στην εγκόσμια καθημερινή ζωή είναι αναμφισβήτητη.

Αν και το ύφος του Βαuhaus αφορά την αποφυγή της σπάταλης ή της χλιδής, που άλλες αρχιτεκτονικές σχολές θα ήταν αδύνατο να αποφύγουν, το πρόσταγμα για μια αισθητική της ολιγάρκειας σε συνδυασμό με το εγκόσμιο καθήκον της εργατικότητας κάνει τους μισητούς όσο και ποθητούς κύβους από γυαλί και ατσάλι να αντιστοιχούν στους συγχρόνους ναούς της πνευματικής άσκησης και προσευχής του συγχρόνου επιχειρηματία και των επαγγελμάτων της οικονομίας και γραφειοκρατίας γενικότερα. 

Ασφαλώς είναι αρκετό να κοιτάξουμε τους πρώτους «πελάτες» της σχολής του Bauhaus για να εξακριβώσουμε τις ομοιότητες αναμεσα στο καπιταλιστικο ήθος και την οικονομική τάξη και πως η τελευταία ανταποκρίνεται στην αρχιτεκτονική παραγωγή που αναπαράγει αυτές τις αξίες. Επιπρόσθετα, δεν  πρέπει να ξεχνάμε ότι η ιδέα της «άνεσης» περιορίζεται από τις δραστηριότητες που είναι επιτρεπτές, τη διεκδίκηση ενός ύφους ζωής που είναι αντίθετο προς την απληστία. 

Εθισμοί –με την έννοια της σταθερής θέλησης– στη βάση ενός ασκητικού βίου, όπως ο αυτοέλεγχος, η εγκράτεια, η υπακοή και η δέσμευση στον επαγγελματικό ρόλο με την έννοια του καθήκοντος δεν βρίσκουν αναλογίες στην υλική συνθήκη του Bauhaus και του «διεθνούς ύφους»; Πασίγνωστες δηλώσεις του Mies van der Rohe όπως το “Less is more” ή το “God is inthe detail” δεν μαρτυρούν μιαν αντίστοιχη κοσμική ηθική;

Η δύναμη της πουριτανικής ηθικής αναπτύχθηκε σε όλα τα επίπεδα της καθημερινότητας και εισέβαλε ασφαλώς στις πιο απόκρυφες γωνίες των ιδιωτικότητας, ευνοώντας τη μετρημένη απόλαυση των αγαθών μέσω του ασκητικού εξαναγκασμού για αποταμίευση, και του αναπόφευκτου σχηματισμού του κεφαλαίου. Η ανάπτυξη μιας οικονομικά ορθολογικής ζωής ως καρπού της επαγγελματικής αφοσίωσης αντιμετωπίστηκε ως ευλογία του θεού. Έτσι και το Bauhaus κατά κάποιο τρόπο είναι από τις πιο «ευλογημένες» παραγωγικές επενδύσεις του κεφαλαίου στο χτιστό πολιτισμό. Αυτή η σύγκλιση λειτουργεί  ανεξάρτητα από τη γνωστή αθεΐα ή αγνωστικισμό των αρχιτεκτόνων που ακολουθούσαν το «διεθνές ύφος». Εξάλλου, όσον αφορά το Bauhaus, στην πλειοψηφία τους οι συντελεστές του είχαν προτεσταντική καταγωγή.

http://avgi-anagnoseis.blogspot.com/2019/10/bauhaus.html 

Where Is the Surplus? Where Is the Poetry?

Sorkin at the Bauhaus

The extent to which collective design processes have a democratic character has not yet been answered.

The three Bauhaus directors reach out to the present: Michael Sorkin, one of today’s most distinguished architects and architecture journalists, is their guest. They want to know what people think of Bauhausian ideas 100 years after the foundation of their school. Michael is happy to answer their questions.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: “Modern buildings of our time are so huge that one must group them. Often the space between these buildings is as important as the buildings themselves.”

Continuing to drill down on your pastoralism, Mies, you are now talking about a particular modernist manner of disposing of large objects in a determinative void. But that fantasy of towers in the park (your version or Corb’s) got tire- some long ago. Not simply have other ideas come up (or been retrieved) about composing the architectural ensemble but also about the inhabition of that space in between, which you see mainly as setting. In truth, you were not a particularly great urbanist. Only when the city building was a set piece and an exception to its context – most immortally the sublime Seagram’s – you made jewels. But the generalization became a nightmare.

Walter Gropius: “A modern, harmonic, and lively architecture is the visible sign of authentic democracy.”

For those of us who were formed in the 1960s and think of ourselves as being political, the conundrum of the limits of collective design’s ability to produce good results—and good results that somehow embody a vision of the democracy that aris- es from the process of collaboration – is still very much an open question. Architecture expresses values, always. It can’t help it since it’s the home of human activities, which are never neutral. The difficulty comes when it tries to be too precise – too prescriptive – about the relationship of architectural forms and human behaviours, because it can so easily cross the line into the territory of coercion and oppression.

https://www.bauhaus100.com/magazine/understand-the-bauhaus/where-is-the-surplus-where-is-the-poetry/

Lighthouse

Lighthouse, 2017

Concrete, wood, acrylic, oil, iron 

240 x 27 x 28 cm 

Hannah Arendt et "atomisation de la société"

1996 | Analyse critique de la conception du totalitarisme selon Hannah Arendt. Claude Lefort, philosophe qui a notamment réfléchi sur le totalitarisme, remet en cause la distinction d'Arendt entre le social et le politique, rejetant ainsi les termes d'"atomisation de la société".

https://www.franceculture.fr/philosophie/hannah-arendt-et-atomisation-de-la-societe

Πλατεία Ομόνοιας: από τον χώρο στις λέξεις

Φύλλο της εφημερίδας Εθνοφύλαξ: ‘Ομόνοιας ανάγκη έχομεν’ (20.10.1862)

Δεν είμαι σίγουρος αν πρέπει (και γω) να προσποιηθώ πως δεν ξέρω τίποτα για την Ομόνοια. Υποθέτω για αρχή πως, ως λέξη -όνομα κοινό– η ομόνοια σίγουρα κάθεται στριμωγμένη ανάμεσα σε άλλες λέξεις, στις σελίδες των λεξικών και εκεί βρίσκει το νόημά της ξανά και ξανά κάθε που μιλιέται ή γράφεται. Αντίστοιχα, ως κύριο όνομα, όνομα πλατείας πιο συγκεκριμένα, γνωρίζω με σιγουριά πως υπάρχει σε καταλόγους, σε χάρτες πόλεων και σε πινακίδες στις γωνίες κτηρίων, σημειώνοντας ειδικά τον τόπο που ορίζει (εικόνα 1) –σε υπόμνηση (ίσως) κάποιας αρχαίας θεότητας (πίνακας 1). Κατ’ επέκταση, η πλατεία Ομόνοιαςστην Αθήνα και η Place de la Concorde στο Παρίσι, αν και δύο διαφορετικοί τόποι, μοιράζονται, εκτός από το ίδιο όνομα, και το πρόθεμα ‘πλατεία’ που περιγράφει με τη σειρά του μία θέση στην πόλη. Η πλατεία Ομόνοιας συνεπώς, εμφανίζεται να παλινδρομεί ανάμεσα στη συνθετική ερμηνεία των δύο αυτών λέξεων, υποστηρίζοντας κατ’ αρχάς μία συλλογική ταυτότητα κοινή, και στην καθημερινή εμπειρία της που αναπόφευκτα διαφεύγει διαρκώς υπερβαίνοντας κάθε υπόθεση σημειολογικής ταύτισης, ή περίπου. Από αυτή τη σκοπιά οι δύο αυτές πλατείες είναι ως σημεία ομόλογα. Μεταπηδούν χωριστά από λέξη σε χώρο και τόπο αλλά και αντίστροφα, όπως θα έλεγε ο Σερτώ, και ενώ ταυτίζονται λεξιλογικά, ταυτόχρονα αποκλίνουν καθώς γράφουν αδιάκοπα διαφορετικούς μετασχηματισμούς της πόλης πάνω τους. Είναι δύο δημόσιοι ανοιχτοί χώροι για τη συνάθροιση ατόμων που συναινούν ή που συναίνεσαν κάποτε σε κάτι με σύμφωνο νου. Πλατεία Ομονοίας · κύριο όνομα ‘όνομα και πράμα’.


Φάνης Καφαντάρης
http://www.athenssocialatlas.gr/άρθρο/ομόνοια-concorde/  

A Puppet Sun

NEON invites you to the opening of the site-specific installation A Puppet Sun by Athens-based artist Kostis Velonis, curated by Vassilis Oikonomopoulos as part of CITY PROJECT 2017.

NEON activates a neoclassical residence at Kaplanon 11, Athens, by commissioning the new installation of Kostis Velonis. The artist conceived A Puppet Sun especially for the site of Kaplanon 11, responding to its history, architecture and position in the heart of the city. The neoclassical residence, constructed in 1891 is a unique architectural example and one of the last remaining buildings of its kind in Athens. Narrated in such an extraordinary space, Velonis’ work addresses the site’s lived experience and memory, investigating the powerful historical, political and cultural intersections as well as personal narratives that are present. The neoclassical residence, constructed in 1981 is a unique architectural example and one of the last remaining buildings of its kind in Athens.

CITY PROJECT is an initiative for public art and the city, conceived and commissioned annually by NEON. NEON aims to activate public and historical places through contemporary art, contributing to the interaction of art, society and the city. This new commission by NEON is the largest-scale solo presentation of Velonis’ work to date.

Curator | Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Assistant Curator, Collections International Art, Tate Modern

OPENING | CITY PROJECT | A PUPPET SUN | KOSTIS VELONIS

11/10/2017 19:00 - 23:00 

Kaplanon 11, Kolonaki

Free Entrance

OPENING

11 October 2017, 7pm

OPENING HOURS

Wednesday – Sunday | 12.00 – 20.00

http://neon.org.gr/en/event/opening-city-project-puppet-sun-kostis-velonis/

Οι ροβινσώνες και ο βασιληάς τους

Ελένη Ζούζουλα, Οι ροβινσώνες και ο βασιληάς τους, εικονογράφηση Τ.Λουκίδη, Λευκή βιβλιοθήκη, 1935

The Kids Want Communism

"The Kids Want Communism” is a yearlong exhibitions project at MoBY-Museums Bat Yam that is held in conjunction with a number of different artists and institutions around the world, including exhibitions, lectures, exhibits, screenings and publications throughout the year of 2016-2017. Partner institutions include the Tranzit Prague, VCRC Kiev, Free / Slow University of Warsaw, State of Concept in Athens, Škuc Gallery in Ljubljana and MoBY.

As part of the third round of “The Kids Want Communism” the entrance exhibits the paintings by the artist Toy Boy, who was born in Luanda, and grew up as a street kid in Angola after the Cuban war against South Africa and the United States. The unique story of this unknown war which led to the fall of the Apartheid is being told through the artist’s experiences.

Beside him, the installation of Hila Laviv and Dana Yoeli “In the Corner This Morning,” an installation poster inspired by the utopian rooms designed by the father of the Soviet constructivist art movement El Lissitzky (1890-1941). The visitors are invited to take with them a poster with a paper self-preparation model, and are encouraged to touch, cut, fold, paint, and decorate in handicrafts tradition of DIY (Do it Yourself). In this way the painting becomes an object.

On the second floor, the large-scale installation of Max Epstein “Dacha,” which was created especially for the exhibition, restores not only the traditional Russian wooden summer house, but also provides the uncanny features it involved. Tamar Nissim presents “I am Simha Sabari,” which tells the fascinating story of Sabari (1913-2004), a Jewish Communist from Yemeni descent, born an albino in the Yemenite Quarter in Tel Aviv and was active in the party in Palestine. The rich political, ideological and cultural contradictions of Sabari’s character display a complexity which seems to have disappeared today.

Mati Lahat exhibits “Titans,“ an installation created especially for the exhibition and composed of original frescoes created by Shraga Weil and Shmuel Katz in the communal dining hall of Kibbutz Ein Hamefratz in 1954. Lahat rescued the frescoes before the dining hall wall was destroyed. At MoBY he presents them against graphite drawings of the Liquidators monument in the Ukraine. These volunteers sacrificed their lives to seal the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl with concrete in 1986 in order to prevent further leakage of radioactive radiation.

Tal Gafny’s installation "Atidim” was also created especially for the exhibition. In its center is the image of Alyssa Carson, an American girl who has been practicing for the last nine years in order to participate in the first manned expedition to Mars, planned by NASA for 2033. The work represents a summary of the first chapter of the project which will accompany Alyssa on her departure to Mars in 17 years.

The exhibition “Notes on Division,” curated by Iliana Fokianaki of State of Concept in Athens, one of the international partners of "The Kids Want Communism” activities, focuses on a return to the Greek civil war of 1946-1949 and the political discourse surrounding the current economic crisis in the country. The exhibition will host six major artists from the art scene in Athens, including: Konstantinos Kotsis, Yota Ioannidou, Antonis Pittas, Yorgos Sapountzis, Kostis Velonis and Vangelis Vlahos.
In addition, the installation “Charging Station" by Nir Harel moves from the central entrance space to the top floor and spreads between spaces. The installations “Red Star” by Noa Yafe - a diorama of Mars; the incubator/sarcophagus of the “Great Soviet Encyclopedia” created by Nicole Wermers; “Structure for Rest” by Ohad Meromi of beds for daydreaming, are moving in the second floor to construct new constellations between the exhibits. The mural by Jonathan Gold showing people standing in line has been completed during the year and is now presented in its final form.

Care a lot, 2016 

Wood, marble, acrylic 

24 x 14 x 11 cm

“The Kids Want Communism” is an annual exhibitions project at MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam, and is held in conjunction with a number of different artists and institutions around the world, throughout 2016. The Kids Want Communism is organized by Iliana Fokianaki, Vladimir Vidmar, Oleksiy Radynski, Vit Havranek, Kuba Szreder and Joshua Simon.

MoBY-Museums Bat Yam 

 http://moby.org.il/en/

 December 15, 2016

Carving the Perfect Citizen: The Adventures of Italian Pinocchio in the Soviet Union and the United States

Branson, Rachel, "Carving the Perfect Citizen: The Adventures of Italian Pinocchio in the Soviet Union and the United States" (2014). Honors Projects. Paper 18.

http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/intstu_honproj/18

The Art of Administration: On Greg Barnhisel’s “Cold War Modernists”

Here is a list of some major players in Cold War Modernists, Greg Barnhisel’s fascinating and meticulously researched history of modernist art and literature’s role in Cold War diplomacy: the American Artists Professional League (AAPL); the American Federation of Arts (AFA); the Committee on Public Information (CPI); the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF); the International Information Administration (IIA); the Office of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA); the United States Information Agency (USIA); the United States Information Service (USIS); and the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Nations, which, by way of a complicated transliteration, adopted the acronym VOKS.

Imagine all of the paperwork produced by one of these benignly titled groups: the mission statements and monthly summaries, official memos and interagency notices, budgets and projected spending reports. Then imagine the size of the file cabinet needed to house all of the documents for it and all of the governmental, quasi-governmental, and philanthropic organizations that dealt in foreign policy and cultural diplomacy between the rise of the Iron Curtain and the fall of the Berlin Wall (or, to take the slightly more manageable time frame at the heart of Cold War Modernists, between the Truman and Kennedy administrations). This will give a sense of the archive from which Barnhisel culls his study. And now imagine the time and patience it would require to find, request, and read this material, and make it say something about the fate of modernist literature and art after their initial spark in the 1910s and 1920s.

Text by Donal Harris

https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/the-art-of-administration-on-greg-barnhisels-cold-war-modernists

Leftist dating Site Splits due to Positions on 1936 Spanish Civil War

https://newworldodor.info/leftist-dating-site-splits-due-to-positions-on-1936-spanish-civil-war/

Η Αριστερή Ιδεολογία στην Πολεοδομία στην Ελλάδα, από το 1960 ως το 1990

Κειμ. Γεώργιος Σαρηγιάννης

http://www.greekarchitects.gr/gr/αρχιτεκτονικες-ματιες/η-αριστερή-ιδεολογία-στην-πολεοδομία-στην-ελλάδα-από-το-1960-ως-το-1990-μέρος-β-id6678

Mathias Goeritz and the Hegemonic Impulse

Long respected as something of a Mexican national treasure, the German-born, naturalized-Mexican artist Mathias Goeritz is at the time of the writing of this text the recipient of significant international attention, thanks largely to his retrospective, “The Return of the Snake,” at the Reina Sofia, which ran from November 2014 to April 2015 in Madrid. This traveling retrospective, which just opened at the Palacio de Iturbide in Mexico City and will thereafter travel to the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico, offers a unique and valuable opportunity to appreciate and evaluate the overall output and ongoing impact of this complex, highly controversial and protean figure, especially within the context of postwar modernities. Perhaps more importantly, it offers the opportunity to not only consider his work then and now, but also the similarities between his epoch and our current one, as well as some of the issues at stake in each moment.

Mathias Goeritz, Museo El Eco (1952-53

Probably most famous for inventing the term “emotional architecture” (which is in fact, something of an architectural hapax legomenon), Goeritz was born in Danzig, Germany (today Gdansk, Poland) in 1915, and after a stint in both North Africa and then Spain, moved to Guadalajara in 1949 and then to Mexico City, where he lived until his death in 1990. An art historian, sculptor, and painter, he came up with the term and corresponding manifesto “emotional architecture” at the inauguration of the Museo Experimental El Eco in Mexico City in 1953, which he designed (also the city’s first museum of modern art). Devoid of so much as a single right angle, this singular piece of architecture, which resembles a cross between a set from Expressionist German cinema and a De Chirico painting, was conceived in response to what Goeritz saw as the stultifying effects of the rationalization of international style in modern architecture. Having arrived in a post-revolutionary, heavily pro-nationalist atmosphere steeped in the social realism of the muralists, Goeritz’s many innovations, ranging from non-figurative or abstract sculpture to monochrome painting, represented a kind of taboo cosmopolitanism, and for some figures even represented a damnable complicity with capitalist imperialism. As such, he and his work were severely criticized and in some cases rejected, and he was ultimately undermined (for instance, in a well-known incident of public opposition, when Goeritz was named museógrafo at the Universidad Nacional de Mexico in 1954, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera published a letter of protest in the newspaper Excelsior demanding the repeal of his position, which was actually met with success).

As such, it is difficult to call them monochromes in the sense that is now generally associated with the monochrome, which is more about its own materiality and color than a means to an end, which in the Mensajes is light and spirituality, and even more to the point, god (In hopes of underlining the work’s relationship with light, Goeritz created dramatic strategies of exhibition in which the Mensajes were, for example, lit only by candlelight). According to Garza Usabiaga, Goeritz was critical of the so-called realism of some currents such as the Nouveaux Réalistes in France, in the sense that their work merely replicated and perpetuated the chaos of everyday life. “To counter this type of practices [sic], Goeritz championed an art of stable referents, and as he said, God was the most stable of all. […] Light is a perfect way to represent this religious referent. The monochrome works in the same way. As the zero-degree of representation, it is a symbol of ‘the whole and of nothing.’(2) Almost ironically, once abstraction and the monochrome later became accepted in Mexico – and largely thanks to his efforts – Goeritz himself became critical of their apparent status as mere merchandise.

Mathias Goeritz, Mensaje, circa 1959, goldleaf on wood, 53 1/8 x 48 in / 135 x 122

It is for these reasons that when all is said and done – and this is admittedly a radically ham-fisted simplification of a very complex historical conflict – one can finally recognize similarities of agendas between the muralists and Goeritz. In the truly dogmatic spirit of the European avant-garde, and whatever their relationship to the production of objects might have been, they both essentially saw art as a means to an end, which was as pedagogical as it was ideological, and which zealously promoted, or rather proselytized a “correct” way of life. They respectively fought for a hegemonic position, as it was natural for an vanguard artist at the time, at the natural exclusion and ideal suppression of all the others. Therein lies what is possibly the greatest “evil” of not only modernity, but even contemporary art (unfortunately, this intolerant, anti-pluralistic, winner-take-all mentality is still very entrenched in certain parts of contemporary practice). Artistic manifesto positions of the time can be seen from our times as essentially retrograde and conspicuously reminiscent of religious fundamentalism, as they always sought to establish an aesthetic orthodoxy, which itself inevitably led to conservatism (we know now that orthodoxy must always be protected from the unorthodox and protected from heterodoxy). But here’s the good news: The conservative and retrogressive always loses, historically speaking.  For better or for worse, this is an immutable law of (art) history, and if there is any lost cause in the history of art, it is the repression or retardation of change –  which, it just so happens is often enforced by either the academy or totalitarian states. Of course, for any art professional who is truly committed to what they are doing, the hegemonic temptation, retrograde in of itself, is always there, but this is the temptation that must be resisted.

Text by Chris Sharp

Notes:
(1) Mathias Goeritz, La Arquitectura Emocional: Una Revisión Crítica (1952-1968), published by Conaculta, INBA, and la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León.

2. Ibid, p. 385

http://terremoto.mx/article/a-consideration-of-mathias-goeritzs-mystical-materialism/

Cartilla Socialista -Republicana

Plotino Constantino Rhodakanaty, Cartilla Socialista -Republicana, 1883 

http://www.juridicas.unam.mx/publica/librev/rev/signos/cont/3/fyd/fyd8.pdf

The Whole Nation Builds the Castle

Antoni Chodorowski's cartoon commenting on the popular interest in the reconstruction of the Royal Castle.The banner reads “The Whole Nation Builds the Castle”, a play on a much repeated slogan of the Bierut era, “The Whole Nation builds its Capital”. Poland, 1975.

Publisher Places a Politically Correct Warning Label on Kant’s Critiques

Most times when I hear someone on a tear about the dangers of “political correctness” I roll  my eyes and move on. So many such complaints involve ire at being held to standards of basic human decency, say, or having to share resources, opportunities, or public spaces. But there are many exceptions, when the so-called “PC” impulse to broaden inclusivity and soften offense produces monsters of condescending paternalism. Take the above omnibus edition of “Kant’s Critiques” printed by Wilder Publications in 2008. The publisher, with either kind but painfully obtuse motives, or with an eye toward pre-empting some kind of legal blowback, has seen fit to include a disclaimer at the bottom of the title page:

This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today. Parents might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work.

Where to begin? First, we must point out Wilder Publications’ strange certainty that a hypothetical Kant of today would express his ideas in tolerant and liberal language. The supposition has the effect of patronizing the dead philosopher and of absolving him of any responsibility for his blind spots and prejudices, assuming that he meant well but was simply a blinkered and unfortunate “product” of his time. But who’s to say that Kant didn’t damn well mean his comments that offend our sensibilities today, and wouldn’t still mean them now were he somehow resurrected and forced to update his major works? Moreover, why assume that all current readers of Kant do not share his more repugnant views? Secondly, who is this editionfor? Philosopher Brian Leiter, who brought this to our attention, humorously titles it “Kant’s 3 Critiques—rated PG-13.” One would hope that any young person precocious enough to read Kant would have the ability to recognize historical context and to approach critically statements that sound unethical, bigoted, or scientifically dated to her modern ears. One would hope parents buying Kant for their kids could do the same without chiding from publishers.

None of this is to say that there aren’t substantive reasons to examine and critique the prejudicial assumptions and biases of classical philosophers. A great many recent scholars have done exactly that. In her Philosophy of Science and Race, for example, Naomi Zack observes that “according to contemporary standards, both [Hume and Kant] were virulent white supremacists.” Yet she also analyzes the problems with applying “contemporary standards” to their systems of thought, which were not necessarily racist in the sense we mean so much as “racialist,” dependent on an “ontology of human races, which underlay Hume and Kant’s value judgments about what they thought were racial differences” (an ontology, it’s worth noting, that produced systemic and institutional racism). Zack respects the vast gulf that separates our judgments from those of the past while still holding the philosophers accountable for contradictions and inconsistencies in their thought that are clearly the products of willful ignorance, chauvinism, and unexamined bias. An informed historical approach allows us to see how books are not simply “products of their time” but are situated in networks of knowledge and ideology that shaped their authors’ assumptions and continue to shape our own—ideologies that persist into the present and cannot and should not be papered over or easily explained away with skittish warning labels and didactic lectures about how much things have changed. In a great many ways of course, they have. And in some significant others, they simply haven’t. To pretend otherwise for the sake of the children is disingenuous and does a grave disservice to both author and reader.

Text by Josh Jones

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2014/03/kants-3-critiques.html

Ordinaryism: An Alternative to Accelerationism. Part 1 - Thanks for Nothing

http://www.furtherfield.org/features/articles/ordinaryism-alternative-accelerationism-part-1-thanks-nothingBy Robert Jackson - 24/03/2014

The Crimea of Russia's imagination

By Ruth Maclennan, artist.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26610276

A Rabbit Displaying Churchill's Victory Sign

Demon Telegraph Magazine, April-May 1945. Courtesy Davenport Magic Company, London.

The Golden Age

The 15-hour working week predicted by Keynes may soon be within our grasp – but are we ready for freedom from toil?

Text by John Quiggin, Aeon Magazine, 27 September.

Source: www.aeonmagazine.com