IN PRAISE OF ART TRAVELLING
[In the art] ‘everything already existed’ – repeats to the audience over and over again Azorro Supergroup in the movie under the same title. Similar assumptions as the artists of the Supergroup draws Kuba Banasiak in the column Będąc bezwzględnymi, czynimy dobro. ART TRAVELLING (Being ruthless, we do good. ART TRAVELLING), published in a holiday edition of “Art & Business” (7-8/2007). As early as in the title he proposes to the readers unusual form of discovering the artistic world – art travelling. It’s admittedly an interesting suggestion but almost impossible to realize because, as the originator of the idea says after Maria Poprzęcka, what was to be discover in the art, was already discovered.
The critic took the idea of art travelling from the recent edition of “Przekrój” (19/2007), in which Marek Bieńczyk and Tadeusz Pióro jointly touted themselves to be taste travellers. Promoted by them new style of kitchen travels directs seekers after taste sensation from beaten tracks to unexplored ground, because only there one may discover something unique and worth remembering. As far as the art of cooking is concerned such a form of travelling may work out, but in contemporary artistic world, as establishes Banasiak, it has actually no raison d'être.
What is to be blamed for ‘permanent and irremovable frustration’ which, according to the author, threatens us for this reason? Elitism, making one’s way in the opposite direction than the crowd leads, in case of art, results in isolation from the main artistic events. To Viennese or Prague biennials, Documenta in Kassel or Skulptur Projekte in Münster, apart from critics and contemporary art connoisseurs, comes also a mass of laymen, who arrive at artistic events by accident, being decoyed by the hope of unusual ‘theatre of peculiarity’, which in their opinion occurs there. Art traveller, according to Bieńczyk and Pióro’s suggestions, should give a wide berth to such places, ‘not to fraternize with the mob’; however, as a fan or an art critic one cannot take liberties to do so.
Kuba Banasiak tries to find a way to stop this vicious circle. Asking innumerable amount of questions, he forces a reader to take part in searching and to make his or her own reflections. Those questions usually do not bring answers, the author seems to assume from the beginning, that presented problem will not find a solution. However, thanks to stimulating a reader to his or her reflections, he helps them to precise their position in the world of art.
This differentiates Banasiak’s article from other texts published in “Art & Business” – instead of showing only dry information, it makes people think. It shows an image of a collector (because to such recipients is mainly referred discussed journal) as a person who is very interested in discussion about the situation of contemporary art, person who tries to build up his or her own opinion on different issues – and not, as may appear from other articles, to gain only some information one may display on a banquet. Banasiak does not hide behind the text, he clearly expresses his views, thanks to what, when we take an attitude towards the raised problem, we are under the impression that we enter a discussion with the author himself, who is interested also in our opinion.
There are many reasons to deliberate. In relatively short text Banasiak introduces many subjects: from the problem of intimacy of experiencing art in the situation of processing artistic events for the bait for tourists, to searching for undiscovered paths and something, which – paraphrasing the aforementioned Azorro Supergroup – was not yet discovered. The impression that all masterpieces were already discovered and that we should not actually expect any new ones because – as establishes Azorro – in the art ‘one cannot even do nothing as it already took place’, may lead to ‘permanent frustration’. Bieńczyk and Pióro wrote in “Przekrój”, regarding taste travelling, that ‘the unknown to a blasé palate taste is a symptom of the fact that development of our civilization still takes place (…) and that not everything is lost’. The impossibility of finding the undiscovered in the world of art, may lead to the belief that we are approaching its end. We would have been approaching it inevitably since the 19th century, since the establishment of academic History of Art, especially as, quoting Hegel, ‘the Owl of Minerva takes flight only as the dusk begins to fall’.
All the same, Banasiak tries to point out less busy paths to fans of art travelling. From the path set by the obligatory, for a fan of the contemporary art, artistic events, he advises to stray into less known galleries and museums. ‘Let it be our journey to the unknown – the unknown air-conditioned ultramodern museum of one of some neat German land’, writes Banasiak. Maybe we will not ‘taste’ masterpieces there, which in case of art travelling may be found far away from the main courses of cooking trips, but we will discover smaller ‘flavours’, which will add colour to already defined world of art.
Coming back to the masterpieces of the former masters – precisely defined and actually closed group – also should not lead as to ‘permanent frustration’. Mentioned by Banasiak Maria Poprzęcka often repeats to her students that masterpieces where admittedly discovered, but not ‘made’, after Derrida, reaching the ultimate and undisputed interpretation is, after all, impossible. It is an important conclusion not only for art historians but also for common recipients – masterpieces will be revealing their depths every time we look at them and each time in a slightly different way. Putting them in different narration – whether through making new thematic exhibitions or building them in our minds in the Malraux’s Museum of the Imagination – will help to make out multitude of senses and depth of meanings, rediscovering them over again what may also make a substitute of the ‘unknown (…) taste’
To those who still expect new sensation from art with hope a little comfort may give Paweł Susid. Instead of conducting ‘a lazy brainstorm’ like the Azorro Supergroup, he created a pie chart showing the situation of the contemporary art. On one coloured smear presenting percentages of what was already discovered in art, marks itself a (narrow) strip of different colour, a dim percentage. So maybe not everything already existed.
Aleksandra Kędziorek
Translated by Magdalena Sokolnicka
Discussed journals: Art & Business. Polska Sztuka i Antyki