Page 82 - ARTE!Brasileiros #60

ENGLISH VERSION FOR FREEDOM

at which our anti-colonial struggles meet remembered as one of the first exhibitions they reside. Immediately, social networks
and became a focus of attack. Anti-Muslim, of the 21st century that “accepts that went into an uproar criticizing the attitude of
anti-Palestinian, anti-queer, transphobia, capitalism has simply become destructive everyone: the magazine, the photographer
anti-gypsy, ableism, castism, anti-black, and does not try to reform it”. He adds: “It and the couple.The problem with the article
xenophobia and other forms of racism are points out how life can survive and thrive is not the photos themselves, but the context,
racisms that German society must deal in the face of the hostility of a catastrophic the publication for which they were made,
with in addition to anti-Semitism.” world economic and social system.” a fashion magazine. Perhaps, if they had
The issue that all this controversy around [1] e-flux.com/notes/480764/from-a-so-paulo-jewish- been made for the cover of an information
anti-Semitism reinforces is how the lack of collective-frankfurter-allgemeine-zeitung-s-false-rumors- magazine, the debate would not have been
dialogue ended up imposing a punitive logic, about-documenta-and-antisemitism so heated.
which began with the cover-up of the panel, [2] e-flux.com/notes/489580/we-are-angry-we-are-sad-we On Instagram, there were also records
followed with the departure of the director- are-tired-we-are-united-letter-from-lumbung-community made by a teacher, a request from his
general and then with the proposals of the [3] documenta-fifteen.de/en/press-releases/ Ukrainian students, to be photographed

Scientific Committee, in a way to end up the-statement-of-finding-committee/ amid the rubble of their school on their
covering up the entire debate on the content graduation day. The justification was to
of the show. There are now those in Germany artiCle PHoToGrAPHy [PAGES 36 And 37] make a protest-rehearsal against the war,
who argue that documenta should no longer in an aesthetic of social networks.
be carried out. It is the logic of the Cultural THE OBSCENE It is not new that philosophers and
War, where it is necessary to eliminate the OF THE IMAGE communication scholars talk about the ever-
divergent, in this case, artistic practices Not all photography is restorative as increasing wave of media entertainment. In
that condemn the xenophobic policies of intended, for example, by the Berlin Biennale, fact, this process was strengthened at the
the State of Israel. when exhibiting a work with records of turn of the 20th century to the 21st century,
prisoners tortured in Abu Ghraib, Iraq
The artists’ letter was supported by the when the attack on the Twin Towers was
documenta Selection Committee, made up By SimonETTA PErSiCHETTi presented to us as a cinematographic event.
of an international team of highly respected More and more, the images that daily
curators, including Amar Kanwar, Charles In recent months, high-impact journalistic parade before our eyes on computer screens,
Esche, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Frances Morris, images have been used for their media or on a smartphone, are more spectacular,
Gabi Ngcobo, Jochen Volz, Philippe Pirotte reach. This was the case, at the recent Berlin sensationalist or scandalous. The French
and Ute Meta. Bauer. The support note, Biennale, of the controversial exhibition by philosopher Gilles Lipovetsky and the
which also opposed works being censored, French artist Jean-Jacques Lebel, Poison professor at the faculty of Grenoble, Jean
was posted on the show’s website [3] . The Soluble. The work, created in 2013, is a Serroy, in their 2015 book The Aestheticization
group also pointed to the underlying issue: maze of cropped and enlarged images of the World, already warned that we live in
“We reject both the poison of anti-Semitism of the torture suffered by Iraqi prisoners a media-mercantile hyperculture in which
and its current instrumentalization, which at Abu Ghraib prison. As a result, 15 Iraqi “contemporary art intends to be ‘experiential’
is being done to deflect criticism of the 21st artists withdrew and removed their works providing strong sensations, a visual shock
century State of Israel and its occupation from the Biennale, accusing the curators by the spectacle of the excessive.” A media
of Palestinian territory”. of misusing the images. aesthetic, which does not always intend or
As in all war tactics, the one used in this Just to remind you of the fact: in 2004, seek reflection, but fright.
document sought to erase any discussion in the midst of the Iraq war, the world was The placement of the image as a mega-
that pointed to its qualities. A lot of people, astonished when the front pages of the event that baffles us, is not tied to journalistic
who didn’t even see the show, started to say newspapers showed Iraqi prisoners being images. Today we should also think about
that there was no art in the show, as was tortured by American soldiers. The Abu the “fashion” of immersive exhibitions,
read in low-level texts that circulated around. Ghraib prison complex was 32 km from which in themselves are quite interesting,
This is an obvious mistake for anyone who Baghdad and was run by the Americans. but not everything should be immersive.
has been there. What shocked the most at that time, They are shows often created with the sole
First, because this lack of art debate is besides the barbaric fact itself, is that purpose of distraction, of fun. Not that
totally misguided. Since the anthological the soldiers had recorded those scenes play is not important, but the way they are
show Live In Your Head: When Attitudes with an aesthetic that was very close to a presented to us seems more like ready-
Become Form, organized by Harald holiday album: they, themselves smiling, made scenarios for selfies, or possibilities
Szeemann in 1969, materiality is not a in front of the prisoners. to create engagement on social networks.
matter of fact, but life in the head is. And, In contemporary times, in which Not every work lends itself to this
in that sense, the show had a vitality like museums are increasingly working on experience. Some, made at the beginning of
few I’ve seen. stories from the past, avoiding historical the 20th century, were created for a different
This edition of documenta deserves to erasure, spectacularization is not always type of dialogue, for aesthetic and historical
be celebrated as one of its most complex a sign of success, but often causes the ruptures, for questioning the current state
editions, which had the courage to solemnly naturalization of an event, such as torture, of the art and not as fake scenarios of an
ignore the art market, which gave visibility to or even alienation. amusement park.
an immense number of little-known artists, In the same month, July of this year, another The controversial and challenging art
especially from the global south, and who controversy involving images: the magazine and culture critic Camille Paglia, in her
created, with the lumbung community, a Vogue hired renowned photographer Annie 2015 book Glittering Images, takes up a
new key to thinking about contemporary art. Leibovitz to portray the Ukrainian presidential statement already made by many: “Modern
Not coincidentally, curator Charles couple, who posed in front of the rubbles of life is a sea of images. Our eyes are flooded

Esche points out that this edition will be war and inside the official palace in which with glittering figures and blocks of text
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