ART Habens Art Review ART Habens Art Review - Special Issue #97 | Page 72

ART Habens
Ante Kustre
draws, in his free-time, portraits of his collegues
in hibernation! Artificial intelligence of evil
omen, computer HALL, killed all other members
of the crew, except that Artonaut. So from
Altamira to space-ships and galactic travels, the
art is the priceless companion to a human, and
who talks about the death of art talks about the
death of the human. Its sliding on thin ice to
only being design or just another sensation in
the society of spectacle carries danger of death.
But the art won't die at least while I'm still alive!
And afterwards will still live because: „All people
are artists, except Mr. Joseph Beuys“, as I
ironically found on the shirt. On the other hand, I
do not believe in the democracy of art, so I
express my attitude to the slogan "
ARTISTOCRAT" on the other shirt. This was also
my reaction to the degrading status of
contemporary art in Split and Croatia too. I
wanted also to remind myself and colleagues
about the dignity of our vocation. Artistocrat
may be poor but can not cease to be
artistocrat;, it is a question of spirit, talent and
decent value. His arte poWera derives from his
poWerty.
people stop believing in truth and goodness). I
believe that he was thinking of artistic beauty,
because natural is already created and is self-
renewing. In performance "Art must be
beautiful, the artist must be beautiful", Marina
Abramovic is saying something similar, and I
am trying hard on both of these plans. Beauty
is nutritious! I know this from my own
experience; when I'm surrounded by the
beauty, I almost never feel hungry; and when I
am surrounded by uglyness, my appetite
becomes too strong. Contemporary life has, in
some aspects, become so ugly and empty of
real meanings that it is no surprise that there
are so many overweight people and bulimia. Art
has also other powers: to change and to health:
Quantum beauty photons penetrate us and
make us more beautiful and healthier inside.
The world became so media-centered that the
borders between reality and its representations
are blurred. It is as virtual really exits, it
alternates more and more, and people are
more and more in the virtual worlds, so
seductive with their ease and speed. It is as if
massive, spiritual migration is happening in a
virtual way, gathering more and more people's
attention, so that „real“ is becoming neglected
and therefore abandoned; like a garden that
has lost the gardener's attention. Today "Data-
people" as I caall them ) is all around,
disconected with the Nature, look at theirs
screens what is natural for them. They will not
recognised the three in the fornt of their eyes,
they'll see and understand only the images of it
on the screen. Recently, a very sexually-styled
girl-robot has been constructed in Barcelona,
which can, during sexual intercourse with her,
show what she wants you to do, how to kiss her
etc. It is a radical product of the trend to
replace a man with his robotic copy and as such
is inhuman, because it ultimately expresses the
attitude about the man as something outdated
and redundant.
An endless way up and an endless way down is
open to a man. I think that man cannot make a
step forward in physical dimension, without
metaphysically jumping upwards beforehand.
Otherwise, he is sentenced to go down and
backwards because standing on the spot is
impossible. In his liberty, man is always exposed
to the antagonistic forces, so he is constantly
obliged to choose between truth and lies, actual
and apparent, authentic and surrogate, real and
imaginary ... The authentic truth and the truth of
authenticity are not imposed on man, they are
only offered to him. Such is the art, it is offered
to everyone, being exposed to the risk of
rejection and disenchantment, and freely
accepted by the one who wants it. Dostoyevsky
says that beauty would save the world (when
Special Issue
Perhaps it has to be that way, perhaps a man
must really reach the very end in the process of
self-alienation and self-abolishment, so that,
being just at the edge of the abyss that
necessarily opens, he could return to his
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