Page 100 - ARTE!Brasileiros #41

WILD TALES ENGLISH VERSION

Who saw “Stories of Sexualities” notice how the exhibition one of the benefits of the brazilian crisis is put under
have no libido, has no desire, is a sex reduced to body widespread suspicion the regime of appearances. The
parts. Within this scenario confused, where protesters feeling of sham and inadequacy, helps us understand
are manipulated and institutions protect themselves why suddenly we don’t need mediation. Art critics have
as fortresses, the output appears to be one, at least for become useless, the teachers are expendable, press plays
Preciado: “turn out the lights for, without any possibility of in an evil way what the digital mass would do better and
spectacle, the Museum can start functioning as Parliament more spontaneously.
of Another sensitivity. This can help us understand the recent wave of abjure that
certain artists and their exhibits are suffering (such as the
El museo erased (Colección Posmuseo) by Paul B. Preciado Queermuseum of Porto Alegre), hateful to intellectuals
Malba, Buenos Aires, 2017 and teachers, (as the public bonfire in which the image
64 pages. 19 x 13 cm of Judith Butler was burned as “witch”), attacks on
ARS 200; universities and research centers (with reduction of
tienda.malba.org.ar funds and scrapping scheduled).
It is as if it were no longer necessary to qualify the
ARTICLE ART AND PSYCHOANALYSIS | PAGES 76 TO 78 conflict, working to create transformation effects that
EMPATHY AND CONFLICT it not gives without anguish and uncertainty. No need to
ponder which conflict can be more productive and which
IN THE AESTHETIC conflict is only an expression of aesthetic enjoyment with
the complaint or pyrotechnics of hatred. We lost our
EXPERIENCE curators. Both in the sense of museum curatorship as you
care, as philosophical attitude of criticism to power. At
this time many clamor for empathy, solidarity or return
BY CHRISTIAN INGO LENZ DUNKER by the memory of fraternal themes.
The term empathy was introduced by Robert Vischer in
AT THE RECENT SHOW organized by the Museum of “Optical Feeling of Form” (1873) as “projection of human
Empathy, underway in the MAM ( Museu of Modern Art) feeling into the world of nature.” Tietchner translated the
of Sao Paulo, people are invited to wear shoes randomly German term “Einfüllung”, using the Greek derivation of
offered while listening to the stories of their owners ‘ pathos, in “empathy”. Pathos in Greek refers to both the
lives. The idea is a kind of literalisation of the expression passion and suffering and also the ability to be affected
“walk with other shoes”. This experience is included in with the other. Less than disease, pathos is conflict. The
a series of initiatives that seek to bring the museum German term contained the radical ein (one) and the
universe closer to the people, decreasing the popular verb fullen (feeling) which brings us the feeling of unity.
impression that the appreciation of works of art is a task Vischer tried to discern this sense of unity of related
for very educated people. But is it really that the aesthetic experiences as feeling with (Mifüllen), the feeling together
experience is able to handle conflicts, generalizing and (Zuzamenfüllen) and the near feeling (Nachfüllen). He
uniting people or she just confirms and deepens the also tried to separate feelings (Füllen) from sensations
exclusion of class, race or origin? (Empfindung). The participation of the body, the presence
At the background resonates the thesis that if we of common humor and compassion are poorly represented
recognize ourself in the other we can understand ourself when we look at the more traditional separation between
better with our own diversity. On the other hand the same empathy and sympathy.
work of art that transforms us, because surprises us and So when we say there’s an affinity based on identifications,
disturb us, can be reduced to an inauthentic reporting, we can only conclude that sympathy cames from that,
only used as sign of class pertinency oe like consumption but it’s the sympathy of the groups and tastes amongst
spectacle. A confirmation sign that gives authenticity themselves, identities and the guidelines, policies,
and social legitimacy to the wealth that you have may ethics and aesthetics that has taken us to a state of
be, at the same time, a source of suspicion about the obscurantism. The proximity by identification produces
legitimacy of our own identity. conflicts by simple opposition, where the solution is
Pierre Bordieu showed how the cultural capital tends the removal of the other’s point of view. Nothing more
to concentrate, reproducing and building up in a similar natural than evoke empathy in this context. Empathy
way of the social capital and by the social capital. But would be the natural antidote against intolerance,
what about an elite who can no longer read your own harassment of foreigners, immigrants and all those
time, not shy away from your own mediocrity? An elite who would be “in excess”, and whose elimination would
that understand the university and culture as a threat make everything easier.
to your own core value: money. Until recently the money Terminological controversy would only be a preciousness
in Brazil did not require history. It spoke for himself, as if we do not look for the importance of the difference
a sign of success and self-righteous power. However, between identification and empathy. A culture of kindness