Page 7 - Art-In-Vogue

by artificial needs. But this is the historical condition of current man; this is his new nature,
and these are the mechanisms of his cultural production. Not to accept this given would imply
the onset of incalculable risks, not the least of which is that of offering the current territories
of society’s imaginary constructs, and, therefore, art, another, a different territory. Perhaps this
territory might appear to be purer, more just, but it is imaginary none the less. In art, which, in
any case, has to remain faithful to its time if it is to maintain any sense, past meaning must be
made to resound, as the qualities of any work are determined more and more often by singular
choices. Man stands on the verge of the 21st century as an extremely hyper-individual being;
he is exasperated and continually wrong-footed by reality, by his own and others’ misleading,
artificial appearance. The problem of artifice is none the less a serious and complex problem that
offers vast opportunity for replies and reactions. The only possibility of saving the naturalness
of being and producing, as a means of guaranteeing the survival of human quality, is to lead
artifice to its extreme consequences, and that is further, beyond…

This is an extremely difficult and complicated task precisely because it is paradoxical.
But art cannot, nor, above all, should it, balk at this task, even though it is now abandoned and
reserve-less in the process of disillusionment from which the concept of the “poetic” arose
in our century. But an art that gives no illusion or that is only reasonable – to indirectly cite
Leopardi – is like a reasonable beast: there is simply no such thing.

In order to communicate and rediscover the dimension of the sensitive, man has no
choice but to go beyond himself, further than himself. Communication, as Dino Formaggio has
it, is an act of the body; it is neither intellectual nor intellective. Communication has nothing
to do with information: it is an emotional reaction, it is communion. Art that expels emotional
reaction only breeds fraud and deception. Sign, word, and colour must be linked and organised
together within the body. The body takes no prisoners, and when it gives in to deception, it
confesses. Always. (Andrea Pagnes, curator, artist)