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 Budomenta 13
Welcome to the Budomenta 13, an art exhibition often
confused with her little sister "documenta". This year's central
theme is the extended martial art term.
Let me introduce our expert panel, the head of the art
department of the Charlassecure insurance company, the curator of
the Ostrogothic Watercolour Collection, the editor of the "Cooking
Like Pollock Is Painting" magazine, the chairman of the Paleolithic
Serigraph Society, and the president of the Industrial Association
of Dumper Truck Manufacturers.
Ladies and gentlemen,
graduated fitted kitchens, incorrectly tied belts made of cast-iron,
and jellied sandbag mobiles. How do you explain this to
outsiders
?
In a pragmatic and citizen-oriented way. Such
events are more and more politicised. Ahead of the show there was a
demonstration under the slogan "Occupy Augean Sty". Instead of
having the protesters arrested, they were fenced in and added to the
exhibition catalogue as a piece of performance
art.
We start our tour with the battle cry installation C4.
It wraps us in a potpourri of animal sounds, squeaking tyres, barkers,
political debates, and other din. Colored fabric panels are
suspended from the ceiling, almost touching the floor. The visitors
are encouraged to tear off parts and put them into their ears, tie
them around their waists, or eat them. At the same time, martial
artists dressed as hares are scampering inside a cage assembled
from picture
frames.
What is the meaning of the work ?
This is a multilayered staging. On the surface,
there is the obvious critique of late Renaissance capitalism. On a
deeper level, the artist is debunking popular myths about public
transport.
In the next room an oasis of calm is
waiting. It only hosts two objects, courageously compiled by the
organizer. The first one is a showcase filled with fibreglass
periodically suffused with differently colored light. A symbol for
the arbitrariness of today's
graduations.
Just a few steps away is the second
installation. It features a pig in a Karate-Doctor T-shirt
that is shooting with a machine gun at extraterrestrials wearing
holographic sashes.
Here, epic stories are being told,
projections of trueness and propaganda which create a
polarising vacuum between
themselves.
Such a balancing act is
nothing new. Let's
revisit
some exhibits from the past. In the garden, one discovers the
long-term installation "Still Life X" consisting of plastic mockups
of examination rules and people in training uniforms. The scene is
reigned by an electronic display of current examination fees. This
is the dynamic part of the configuration as the figures stay put,
literally waiting for their belts getting darker and darker over
time. Eventually, they do turn black because of environmental
pollution.
Within sight are several
plaster busts, representing enemies of anti-associations. They are
placed in a pigeon loft and over the years got covered with
bird shit. The artist reads his work as nature's critical reflection
about the arrogance of whistle-blowers. This exhibit won the
challenge cup of the royal academy for swarm
stupidity.
Back in the present, we
discover a real crowd-pleaser, a device producing different sized
soap bubbles. It's quite a sensation because by means of secret
additives completely black bubbles can be fabricated. However, just
like their colorful counterparts, they will burst when getting in
touch with the
environment.
Despite of
all planning and supervision there are still occasional surprises.
Overnight, unknown persons have set up a new installation in the
park. It is a maze made of razor wire. Having found a way through
the labyrinth, one is rewarded with videos showing exemplarily
executed
techniques.
The audience loves this work.
What do the experts think
?
Basically, the object is incomprehensible, no
interpretation is provided. It has most likely not been properly
intellectualised. Thus, it can at best be classified as a decoration
item.
In the main building, an array of cement
blocks attracts attention. From a distance they look like giant
cigarette packs. Getting closer, one can see that they have been
engraved with names of clubs and individual persons. Similar to
tobacco, there are hazard warnings, such as "Anti-dojos poison your
future", "Doing antisenseis favours damages your reputation", "Anti
associations induce chronical charlatanry",
"Wishy-washy training causes loss of
reality", and "Overgraduation leads to
megalomania".
Because of
its easy comprehensibility, some critics dismiss this ensemble as
blatantly trivial activism devoid of concrete solutions. Others
praise it as a paragon of naive sculpting in the best cubistic
tradition.
Let's now address the
incredible development which triggered a controversial debate and,
as some say, one of the biggest scandals in the history of art. We
are of course referring to the so called "Enhancement Aesthetics", a
concept where famous works of great masters are being modified. Yes,
you've heard right, originals are altered. Who buys it, owns it and
can do whatever he wants to do. Or does he
?
Well, a fierce quarrel flared up, with no end in
sight. Although the method is not new, it is unfamiliar to the
general public because up to now mostly unknown artefacts have been
reworked. Art lives, art is subject to change, and this art form
transfers the works into a new paradigm in which art is defined and
realised as a universal language of vicissitude. A wonderful modern approach, so to say a
globalisation of creativity over space and
time.
Have a look at some examples. The Mona
Lisa is wearing a black belt, the Man with the Golden Helmet is
dressed in samurai armour, tic-tac-toe symbols are drawn into Piet
Mondrian compositions, Munch's The Scream shows a person after
a failed brick breaking test, and on Hokusai's Wave surfers are
fighting each other with nunchakus. Experts are still arguing about
whether certain Jackson Pollock paintings were modified at
all.
One might or might not deplore that. It's a
fait accompli, so let the market decide.
The next
work can only be viewed through a semi-transparent mirror. It is a
henhouse with free-ranging chickens. On the ground, numerous
monitors are installed showing clips from tournaments and training
in contemporary clubs. Every ten minutes the room is dimmed, and the
twilight fuses all elements into one of the most haunting mataphors
of the Budomenta
13.
Primarily suited for sporty
persons is a walk-in wood construction, which can be entered through
a narrow hatch. Its interior features a
gallery with huge eye replicas on which running windshield wipers
are mounted. Not until exiting the object do we realize that it is a
colossal gluteal model, and disturbing analogies
surface.
In a
heavily guarded room, we find the best protected piece of this
exhibition. Behind bulletproof glass is a DVD player, isolated
from any output device. A disc playing in an infinite loop
contains secret recordings about the creation of commercial illusory
worlds, the so called
anti-budoing.
The facts are
there, directly in front of us, all the things we always knew but
could not prove, so close but unreachable, a monument of
alienation.
This is mesmerizing visual poetry. It
galvanizes the audience into thought, maybe into action, even
overreaction, or loss of self-control. A compulsive urge is cropping
up to lunge at the player and connect a monitor and speakers. The
work evokes strong emotional responses. This is really great
art.
Speaking of money, what is it
worth ?
Auctioneers set the initial bet to one million
dollars. Ultimately it should earn considerably more. There are
many potential customers since budo associations and individuals
alike have a keen interest to include the work into their private
collections.
And that's the end
of our programme. One little anecdote remains to be told. Based
on experiences with previous art shows, the toilets have not been
cleaned for several days because it was unclear whether
they might be exhibits. Well, it seems that not everyone is an
art expert. Until next
time.
© 2012 DEA + GNM + HAW +
TDI +
UNE |
