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| Euphoria, or on Renunciation Māra Traumane "Euphoria (Greek eu "good" + pherein "to bear") - an elated state of mind, unconcern, satisfaction with oneself and one"s surroundings; a feeling often brought about artificially (e.g. by alcohol or drugs), often a sign of mental illness." [1] | |
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It turned out that the whole of this project is about loss and renunciation. Originally, in making a gesture of donation to the biennial, we wished to give blood. It was to be beautiful - five young, sympathetic artists donate a standard dose of blood in St Mark's Square and immediately waste it by feeding the pigeons in the square. An almost childish gesture of renunciation, revealing ambition and nervousness, clashing with the already existing range of art objects. But it would also be a noble gift - though the material in question is alarming and has various connotations - to the famous birds of the home of the Venice Biennial. We liked the pointlessness of losing this precious biological matter, which would seem appropriate to the artistic process.
But then there appeared the possibility of renouncing it all. As if following the sign of dreams and conflicts, we became bogged down in the mechanisms of cultural production [2]. This case put "Euphoria" at the crossroads of power relations, where media interests, political judgments and economic decisions stifled our ambitions. At that moment, we decided to create a legend. The message concerning F5 would not even be something particularly novel. The "Famous five" have always been something like a brand label, more recognisable as a concept than as an association of individual artists. An exercise in absence (non-representation) might even give a new and dramatic twist to the story of the "lyrical technocrats", who in the late 90s were among the first to reveal the interest among young Latvian artists in digital technology and interdisciplinary activity. With regard to their creative activity and collective image, the critics have sometimes characterised F5 as romantics. The laconic stylishness of "Euphoria" - forced absence - is in line with their earlier works, with the feeling for the environmental context at the exhibitions they have held and the events devoted to street culture. At one time, the "young artists" of F5 harboured a very moving, pseudo-naïve plan of capturing a museum - "taking hostage" an important work of art in one of the world's most famous museums and thus for a few days "holding their own" in this art institution. We tried to turn defeat into history, and found this to be a liberating practice. In these pages, "Euphoria" has been transferred to the realm of consciousness, and along with us, our readers also become the real carriers of the message. Expressed in this way, it avoids the traditional tension and limitations of the biennial - marking out of national territory, comparison of works, and the role of representing a striving new country placed outside the Giardini. However, slightly altered by "Euphoria", the heroes of the story continue to operate "in the field of play, in the field of real relationships"[3]. The collision between the dream and the conflict was the reason for our applied idealism. And don't look for the pavilion... P.S. 07.05. 20003. In one of the latest issues of Kunstforum, Peter Weibel speaks of the "theory of the proxy" [4] - a topical situation in contemporary culture, where images obtain magical force and can change book (i.e. military) history. Of course, the article deals with the widely circulated image of the destruction of the twin towers and the contemporary dependence on the pictures offered by the mass media, on their symbolic load and the identification of images, and about a world where an image is equal in terms of effect to a military victory. Latvia's spread in this year's Venice Biennial catalogue has been created in awareness of the strategic language of the image and the medium, i.e. the "proxy", its documentary value and with it the unmatched independent reality. The original English version of the text and the comic are to be found in the catalogue of the Venice Biennial - the 50th International Art Exhibition - and in the web site http://www.lcca.lv/. [1] Svešvārdu vārdnīca. - Rīga: Jumava, 1999. [2] See: Bourdieu, P. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature / Ed. by Randal Johnson. - Cambridge: Polity Press, 1993. [3] Ibid. [4] Peter Weibel - Magie und Bild (Ein Gesprach mit Birgit Richard) // Kunstforum. - 2003. - Bd. 163, Januar-Februar. - S. 151-156. | |
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