Enthusiasm! Christina Manning Lebek, June 2013
Fig. 1. November 4, 2008, Grant Park, Chicago. Photograph © Matt Maldre. In Grant Park Bill Ayers, along with a million others, listened to President Obama's acceptance speech. Enthusiasm, today, is deemed to be overly im‐ pressionable.
What makes a man a political being is his faculty of action. Hannah Arendt
All fair action is the product of enthusiasm. Henry David oreau
For the pessimist, the term ‘enthusiast’ invokes images of naiveté; caricatures ranging from ef‐ fusive gardeners to fanatical antique collectors or even gullible consumers who have fallen prey to the entrapments of ever-enthusiastic marketing. Take for example the sales machin‐ ery behind the popular American painter whose name was offi cially trademarked ‘omas Kinkade, Painter of Light’, a phrase originally attributed to the English painter J.M.W. Turner. Vast numbers of American, sub‐ urban, would-be art collectors encountered the bizarre promotional machinery of e omas Kinkade Company via its outgoing salespeople who were usually votaries of Kinkade them‐ selves. ese purveyors cultivated potential clients’ interest by enchanting them through en‐ thusiastic conversation about the works’ aes‐ thetic and emotional assets. Located in large shopping centres, Kinkade galleries endeav‐ oured to sell an affect in addition to an ‘artwork’, an experience of transcendence by which Kinkade’s art transports a person from the malls of America into an idyllic, domestic wonderland.’[1] e sad truth is, they are not paintings at all but limited-edition replicas and though consumers might believe that they have art world value in reality they have none. It is estimated that one in twenty homes in America owns a copy of one of his works, and it has been
claimed that Kinkade was ‘America’s most-col‐ lected living artist’ before he died.[2] Kinkade’s ‘artwork’ is a classic example of what the OED would identify as ‘an object of enthusiasm’.[3] An ‘action or idea (or an object) about which one feels enthusiastic’ is also known as a ‘craze’ and is frequently temporary.[4] Enthusiasm is defined, in part, as a ‘rapturous intensity of feeling in favour of a person, princi‐ ple, cause, etc.’ and its critics contend that its passion is what renders it blinkered and conse‐ quently defenceless - undependable due to the primacy given to emotional beliefs.[5] ere seems to be a kind of shame that is attached to enthusiasm, as if it is too eager and therefore blind. at, in fact, it is wise to be wary; indif‐ ference might not cause harm. e English ro‐ mantic poet, Lord Byron (1788 - 1824) penned,
enthusiasm has become a prerequisite for all business people that hope to outlast the current recession in late capitalism.’[7] ‘Enthusiasm has become a cold and calculated management
Enthusiasm’s greatest danger was not its strange, eccentric energy or its adherents, but its unnerving refusal to remain marginal. Jasper Cragwall
However, 'tis expedient to be wary: Indifference certes don't produce distress; And rash enthusiasm in good society Were nothing but a moral inebriety[6] Yet enthusiasm is neither entirely unarmed nor useless. For example, one might be inclined to sympathize with those for whom enthusiasm is a necessary evil and keenness, when it increases productivity, a virtue. For many in this eco‐ nomic downturn, hope in enthusiasm’s labourvalue springs eternal. Research in the US and Britain demonstrates that ‘a forced display of
strategy used as a so tool both to increase pro‐ ductivity and to perform as a safety valve that diffuses potential charges of exploitation.’[8] Imaginably this thinking finds its roots in the self-help literature written by authors such as William Sune who aimed at the white-collar businessman. In 1929, aspiring to win a wider readership for his book through using the title Charm, Enthusiasm and Originality - their Ac‐ quisition and Use, Sune claimed that ‘Enthusi‐ asm, when controlled by subtle repression, re‐
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sults in either élan, originality, magnetism, charm or “IT”, depending on the manner of its use. Uncontrolled enthusiasm results in blaring jazz, fanaticism and recklessness. A complete lack of enthusiasm produces the obsequious waiter and the uneducated street car conductor.’ Not only was enthusiasm a requirement for the salesman’s success but it had to be ‘generated’ by arduous methods such as a rigorous nutri‐ tional regimen and the regular enthusiastic ‘ex‐ ercise of the facial muscles’.[9] Unluckily, in Oc‐ tober that same year, speculation on the stock market came to an end on Black Friday. e hope of advancement promised by Sune’s en‐ thusiasm techniques was crushed by the reali‐ ties of the Great Depression. e rage for Kinkade and the recommendations of Sune might lead one to consider whether these forms of enthusiasm are culturally specific to the USA. Could it be that certain enthusias‐ tic sentiments are the preserve of geographical dispositions or national inclinations? For whilst Sune’s guidance to the American businessman of the 1920s seems humorous now, there are other manifestations of enthusiasm that are momentous and occur at pivotal junctures in a nation’s or people’s history. For example, following the American War of Independence, in an effort to distinguish a break from British literary culture the famous orator Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882, Fig. 2) issued a call for distinct and original forms of US literature.[10] He greatly desired that Americans would no longer ‘build the sepul‐ chres of the fathers…or grope among the dry bones of the past’. He persuaded with the words, ‘e sun shines today also. ere are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us de‐ m an d ou r ow n wor k s an d l aw s an d worship.’[11] He was writing about influence in his essay ‘Circles’ and his method was clear. Borrowing a statement from the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, Emerson declared, ‘Nothing great was ever achieved without Enthusiasm.’ [12] Enthusiasm is funda‐ mental to originality and brilliance is accompa‐ nied by nothing less. Speaking of Emerson’s es‐ say ‘Nature’, David Herd writes, ‘the book's cen‐ tral achievement was rhetorical, Emerson's pur‐ pose being to announce a new beginning and in so doing to raise in his readers new ambitions. ‘Nature’ was a summons, a call to creativity.’[13] Elsewhere, Lenin, for instance, mustered Rus‐ sian enthusiasm by utilizing its’ power to influ‐ ence. When defending the Russian revolution during the civil war that followed, he wrote of the fervour of the masses: ‘We are witnessing an upsurge of revolutionary enthusiasm called forth by the treacherous assault of the German White Guards on the Russian revolution. Tele‐ grams are pouring in from everywhere express‐ ing readiness to rise in defence of Soviet power and to fight to the last man. No other attitude on the part of the workers and peasants towards their own workers’ and peasants’ power could have been expected.’ His spur to action went further. He wrote, ‘...enthusiasm alone is not enough for the conduct of war against such an adversary as German Imperialism...War must
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. Ralph Waldo Emerson be waged in earnest, or not waged at all.’[14] One can infer that this ‘earnestness’ that Lenin sought from his people is a relative of enthusi‐ asm or what might be interpreted as a kind of ‘over-enthusiasm’. He was calling for one of
Enthusiasm!
earnestness’ oldest definitions: ‘ardour in battle’. [15] While the October Revolution sought to be a world revolution and communism would do away with nation states, Lenin in this in‐ stance intentionally used nationalistic seman‐ tics (the ‘German White Guards’, and the ‘Rus‐ sian Revolution’) as a way to elicit enthusiasm. is cursory look at what could be called a type of national or geographical enthusiasm is inter‐ esting, but a formulaic approach to enthusiasm, in this way, would be lacking due to its implicit ethno-stereotyping and it would be neither practical nor feasible. Michael Heyd writes, ‘It is a misguided historical exercise to search for a clear definition of enthusiasm, let alone to look for a well-defined movement.’[16] It simply could never trace enthusiasm’s elusive varia‐ tions. Not only is enthusiasm oen characterised through nationalistic typecasts but also as a kind of naïve passion. I wanted to get those dis‐ cussions of enthusiasm out of the way right at the start of this essay. e caricatures with which I began, such as gardening or the craze for Kinkade, are not the only, or perhaps even the true, story of enthusiasm. (Not to mention the fact that reading parodies of enthusiasm, as an ongoing list, would not be engaging for very long.) An important point to highlight at the beginning is the way these stereotypes can dominate one’s thinking. One of the challenges facing an essay that investigates enthusiasm is the need to make the reader aware of the temp‐ tation to dismiss it too quickly due to one’s pre‐ conceived ideas on the topic.[17] Enthusiasm, like many other words, has undergone numer‐ ous, subtle transmutations in historical and cul‐ tural meanings. Rather than considering the aforementioned types of enthusiasm or other versions, such as an individual pursuit of selfrealisation, this essay will try to open up a di‐ vergent discussion, which focuses on enthusi‐ asm as a political force. is force, exceedingly diverse in its expres‐ sions, is met with resistance. As Alberto Toscano has aptly put it, ‘e critique of enthu‐ siasm is…far more unified than its targets.’[18] Subtle and overt political enthusiasm has his‐ torically taken many forms such as oracles, verse, religious creeds and spiritual manifesta‐ tions, poetry, oratory and singing, etc. More re‐ cently it has taken the shape of philosophical arguments such as Slavoj Žižek’s, which suggest that enthusiasm is the remedy to the widesweeping prevalence of fear in our time. As we will see, enthusiasm has historically transmitted and influenced culture. It is politically useful, particularly when it manifests its contagious na‐ ture and is sustained over extended periods of time. is type of enthusiasm has a specific rel‐ evance and cogency within social and political art practices today.[19] To frame this discussion, I have chosen Cubanborn artist Tania Bruguera as a case study and alongside her work, I discuss historical exam‐ ples of enthusiasm. ough many political artists display enthusiasm, Bruguera has a par‐ ticular resonance due to the parallel between her work as an immigrant working on behalf of immigrants and my experience as an immi‐ grant. Yet her enthusiasm is significant to many others. Art historians Claire Bishop and Nato ompson, for example, write extensively about Bruguera’s work. In particular, Claire Bishop writes about the way that Bruguera was a pio‐ neer in creating art that operated as a non-tra‐ ditional form of education. Cátedra Arte de Conducta was the first art school of its kind. Lastly, Bruguera herself believes in the value of enthusiasm and has claimed that it is central to her intentions. In an interview she asserts, ‘As an artist, my voice reaches the media sporadi‐ cally, and even then it is not always my actual
voice. e way in which your voice belongs to others is not always through a declaration, but also via enthusiasm and empathy.’[20] Examining enthusiasm in Bruguera’s art prac‐ tice I consider three main periods in her work. First I look at the early years of her political performances (1997-2009) and ask: how is the body the site for enthusiasm? Next, I reflect on the first of her long-term projects Cátedra Arte de Conducta (2002 to 2009) and discuss the contagious nature of enthusiasm answering the question: how is Cátedra Arte de Conducta, as an unconventional form of education, an exam‐ ple of enthusiasm’s power of influence? Last, I consider Bruguera's current long-term project Immigrant Movement International (2011- on‐ going) and re-examine David Hume’s historic assertion that enthusiasm is a friend of civil lib‐ erty. In light of this, what are the demands that are made upon enthusiasm for it to be a friend of liberty today?[21] Finally, I ask the question, what is the usefulness of enthusiasm to partici‐ patory art and social practise now?
Biography of Enthusiasm Bruguera was born in Havana, Cuba in 1968 into the family of a Cuban government official. She was named aer Tania the Guerilla, an East German communist volunteer and the only woman to fight alongside Che Guevara, a figure whom Bruguera’s father had known personally and admired. Between the age of five and eleven her father’s work as a diplomat took the family to live in Paris, Lebanon and Panama until her parents’ divorce in 1979 over ideologi‐ cal disagreements. At that point Bruguera re‐ turned to live in Cuba with her mother and sis‐ ter and began attending the Escuela Elemental de Arts Plasticas in Havana. During the 1980s Cuban art was impacted by a group of artists known as los 80s. is group was influenced by American conceptual art and the beginning of the thawing of the Cold War under the Soviet policy of Perestroika. Los 80s viewed their art as a powerful tool in the cause of freedom, addressing and challenging issues previously suppressed through official Cuban state censorship. ese movements affected Bruguera with their drive towards cultural, so‐ cial and political change.
History of Enthusiasm In considering the role of enthusiasm in politi‐ cal art practice, specifically in regard to the work of Bruguera, it is helpful to start at the be‐ ginning of enthusiasm because we can see glimpses of the way it originated, how it re-oc‐ curs, and in addition its controversial nature throughout time. Since its origins enthusiasm has been ‘an intensifier and disseminator’.[23] It began its journey towards the English language in ancient Greece through Plato who relayed a discussion of the term Enthousiasmos, first in Plato’s Ion (as well as Phaedrus), thus becoming the locus classicus for the term.[24] Socrates discussed Enthusiasm, or the process of poetic inspiration with the rhapsode Ion, contending that poetry or ‘verse’ is the state of being ‘en‐ thused’, which means literally to take in or be possessed by god. ‘And for this reason god takes away the mind of these men and uses them as his ministers, just as he does soothsayers and godly seers, in order that we who hear them may know that it is not they who utter these words of great price, when they are out of their wits, but that it is god himself who speaks and addresses us through them.’[25] Enthusiasm’s critics over the years would not forget this allusion to being ‘out of one’s mind’, forever colouring the way it would be perceived by some.[26] Critics, who were varied in their beliefs, such as Meric Casaubon, omas Hobbes, Henry More, Alexander Ross and Jonathan Swi ‘attack enthusiasm as an irra‐ tionalism and a threat to civil peace.’[27] En‐ thusiasm was oen associated with the activi‐ ties of extreme Protestant sects. Alexander Ross in his book A View of All Religions in the World (1654) includes in his list of enthusiasts: the Adamites, Anabaptists, Antinomians, Brown‐ ists, Familists, Independents, Quakers, Ranters and Socinians for example, but there were more. Many people would include the Methodists in this list by the late eighteenth century.[28] Not all enthusiasts were religious. Alberto Toscano has argued that ‘also Platonists, experimental philosophers or even rationalists like Descartes, were guilty of ‘philo‐ sophical’ or ‘contemplative’ enthusiasm. Toscano asserts, in his book Fanaticism, that the religious enthusiasts were radical not solely because of the freedom of their religious or spiritual experiences and practices but also be‐ cause of the way in which they were a perceived
Beginning in 1986, while still a student, Bruguera performed a series of re-enactments of the work of recently deceased artist Ana Mendieta, whose work had been at risk of being erased from the record by policies aimed at pro‐ tecting the Cuban political establishment. ough this project spanned ten years of her career Bruguera destroyed the entire body of work in 1996 aer a final performance at the Institute of International Visual Art in London. Aer graduating from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana in 1992, Bruguera became an assistant professor while also teaching at the Es‐ cuela de Conducta Eduardo Marante. At that time the Escuela de Conducta was a school for the rehabilitation of non-violent juvenile of‐ fenders and Bruguera utilized art to aid the re‐ form and re-education of the students. is work was formative in developing her longterm method of making art which is called Arte de Conducta or Behaviour Art. In 2009 Bruguera le Cuba and emmigrated to the United States where she now lives and works in Queens, New York and is currently developing her latest long-term behaviour art project Im‐ migrant Movement International (IMI).[22]
Fig. 2. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), drawing by Sam W. Rowse, © public domain.
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threat to the authoritarian, religious and politi‐ cal establishments in which they found them‐ selves. ‘While we tend to think of claims to rev‐ elation as excuses for the illegitimate preroga‐ tives of absolutist despots and theocratic clerics and their critique as inherently anti-authoritari‐ an, things are not so straightforward. As studies of seventeenth century radical thought indicate, claims to revelation, or to a kind of plebeian and pantheist rationalism, could bolster potent ch a l l e nge s to p ol it i c a l an d re l i g i ou s authorities.’[29] Enthusiasm initiates diverse configurations of reformation.[30] Clark writes, ‘Enthusiasm, then, is not primarily an issue be‐ cause one or two people claim to prophesy or to speak for God, it is because it relates to the power of mass psychological movements, to sectarianism, to fear of the mob’.[31] Further, ‘Enthusiasm is fear of mass cults, of crowd be‐ haviour, or popular delusions or even insurrec‐ tions.’[32] John Locke was relentless in his cri‐ tique of enthusiasm, regarding it as ‘the un‐ grounded fancies of a man’s own brain.’[33] Ar‐ guing instead for a faith grounded in reason he asserted that enthusiasts ‘are sure, because they are sure: and their persuasions are right, only because they are strong in them.’[34] Enthusi‐ asm, according to Locke, has a circular nature: the more strongly an enthusiast believes, the greater his/her confidence grows in their belief. Locke’s scathing rebuke contends that when en‐ thusiasm lacks reason or judgment it is a closed circuit and by implication is untrustworthy.[35] However, Toscano argues that the ‘neat image of an empirically grounded reason against the illegitimate claims of enthusiasm become com‐ plicated once we consider it in its cultural and political context… Heyd writes, ‘rather than a simple battle between an emerging enlighten‐ ment and regressive forms of religious inspira‐ tion and rationalist theology, the critique of en‐ thusiasm needs to be understood as the product of the crisis of an order founded on scripture, humanistic learning, Aristotelian scholasticism and Gallenic medicine; the institutional and symbolic crisis of the transcendental legitima‐ tion of the political order. e new physiologi‐ cal, scientific and physiological idioms that were thrown up by this crisis and relied so widely on the disparagement of enthusiasm ‘were all allied with defences of the social and political order’, in as much as they sought to preserve it against the excessive and unregulat‐
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ast. Rather than a reliance on reason (or at least reason alone), enthusiasm is a kind of trust that is founded in a less than linear constellation. [39] As I have maintained, enthusiasm is diffi‐
sects in seventeenth century England, it is also found in the words of a soldier who fought in the irty Year’s War before becoming a Dis‐ calced Carmelite monk. Brother Lawrence (1614-1691) claimed that, whether he picked up a piece of straw from the soil or ‘flipped my little omelette in the frying pan’, he did it moti‐ vated by his love for God. He wrote, ‘We do not always have to be in church to be with God, we can make of our hearts an oratory.’[43] Lord Shasbury (1671-1713), or ‘Europe’s Plato’ as he was called by the German romanticist and philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744– 1803), divorced enthusiasm from the supernat‐ ural yet also grounded it in love, all sound Love and Admiration is ENTHUSI‐ ASM: e transports of Poets, the sublime of Orators, the Rapture of Musicians, the high strains of the Virtuosi; all mere ENTHUSI‐ ASM! Even Learning itself, the love of Arts and Curiosity, the Spirit of Travellers and Ad‐ venturers; Gallantry, War, Heroism; All, all ENTHUSIASM! – ‘tis enough: I am content to be this new Enthusiast…[44]
Fig. 3. Henry David oreau (1817-1862), photograph, © IsoBrown. cult to pin down. It is elusive. However, I’d like to make a subtle argument that enthusiasm arises from affect, belief, love, faith and the imagination, themes that re-emerge throughout this essay. For Ion the rhaspode, despite being dampened by the intrinsic quality of Enthousi‐ asmos’ madness, enthusiasm had done ‘its per‐ fect work’ in convincing him.[40] He concedes to Socrates, that despite his previous protesta‐ tions, “Somehow you touch my soul”. is phe‐ nomenological nature of enthusiasm, this pow‐ er it has to ‘affect’ others is equally embedded in its connotations throughout history alongside the sense suggested by Locke that it lacks con‐ templation. e German enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804, Fig. 4) reasoned that enthusiasm develops from the merging of affect, idea and imagination, and can assist as a ‘spur to action’.[41] Perhaps this power to act is due to the insepa‐ rable relationship of enthusiasm with belief. As Professor Steven Connor argues, belief used to be a matter of love rather than a set of asser‐ tions based on proofs. He writes, ‘For us, be‐
In regard to Shaesbury, Clark observes, ‘En‐ thusiasm may become the self-transcendence of a form of Platonic eros, drawing us out of our concern with ourselves to a love of the good and beautiful in others and even, ultimately, to a love of the cosmos itself ’. In summary, an individual belief in ‘Someone’ like the belief held by Brother Lawrence, Shas‐ bury’s belief in others, or more recently the longing for the structures of faith, such as what Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) referred to as ‘a faith for the faithless’, or even what atheist philoso‐ pher Simon Critchley has referred to as a need or desire to hold to a ‘troth’ – a set of beliefs that one is betrothed to, each could be argued as reasons for and examples of enthusiasm. In other words, faith, belief, love and holding to a set of truths are all modes of enthusiasm and can also be considered to be some of its motiva‐ tions. ey are interconnected to one another in the way that they have a relationship to the later Latin form of Enthousiasmos translated into English as inspiration, which is related to the word respiration. is could also be under‐ stood as a faith in (or in-breathing) Someone, or something from ‘somewhere else’, which in‐ fills the individual. is ‘something which
Elusive and unobjectifiable, enthusiasm may be as invisible and insidious as a rumour, and yet capable of galvanizing multitudes. Timothy Clark ed claims of those who trumpeted an access to truth without mediation, be it religious or polit‐ ical - those who, to use a Weberian formulation, staked their standing on charisma rather than institutions.’[36] e rejection of enthusiasm was a sign of the times, a threat to established order on all fronts. Enthusiasts brought disruption. I will return to numerous ones from history because they manifest a fore‐ shadowing of the type of enthusiasm, found in participatory artists today, that is also politically disruptive. e critique or ‘the discourse of en‐ thusiasm was repeatedly used to marginalize and thereby silence, according to class or gen‐ der or cognitive mode or religious affiliation. It was used to constitute authority against forms of power that were perceived as threatening.’[37] I will revisit this opposition, in regard to political art. e effort to silence en‐ thusiasm's voice persists. I have discussed the reasoning of those who re‐ acted against them but I haven’t explained what was at stake for the enthusiast.[38] Why enthu‐ siasm? Perhaps it is dependable to the enthusi‐
lieving has become a matter of believing ‘that’ rather than believing ‘in’. In English ‘Belief ’ de‐ rives from the be-leven and cognate forms for Old English belyfan and West Saxon gelyfan. ese in turn derive from Germanic ga-laubjan, hold dear, love, from an Indo-European base leubh-, like, love, desire’. is relationship be‐ tween love and belief makes sense of the ex‐ pression to believe on, which was more com‐ mon than believe ‘in’ during the fieenth centu‐ ry, as well as earlier expressions which have also had their day, like ‘believing into’ and ‘believing onto’. is sounds akin to the second part of the modern definition of Enthusiasm in the OED, ‘a passionate eagerness in any pursuit, proceed‐ ing from an intense conviction of the worthi‐ ness of the object’. Is it possible that these earlier forms of belief re-emerge within some enthusiasts? For George Fox (1624-1691) who founded the Quaker church, the love of God was the fuel of his be‐ lief. He writes, ‘I was taken up in the love of God, so that I could not but admire the great‐ ness of His love… en aer this there did a pure fire appear in me.’[42] is affection was not only present within Protestant Enthusiast
infills’ could also take the form of a cause or a demand.[45] For example, in an interview with frieze entitled ‘A Kind of Faith’, Simon Critchley reasons that his type of faith is “faith as an ex‐ perience of fidelity to a demand that I hold to be true…truth, not conceived of in a scientific or logical way, but truth as that which I’m faith‐ ful to…faith as something that structures my life, be it politically or artistically, or how you choose to deal with people.”[46] As I have said, this too can be considered enthusiasm. To be specific, as an enthusiast, by his understanding of faith, Critchley has ‘entered with enthusiasm into a pursuit’ which he holds to be true, and it affects how he deals with people.[47] ese di‐ verse forms of enthusiasm, these types of faith, love, or divergent beliefs spur the individual to action. is action is for his/her pursuit or cause and as Henry David oreau (1817-1862, Fig. 3) wrote, ‘we may call him a fanatic – an enthusiast – but these are titles of honour, they signify the devotion and entire surrendering of himself to his cause. Where there is sincerity there is truth also...’[48]
Continuing with Critchley’s discussion, he in‐ sists that ‘truths’ are always in danger of becom‐ ing dogma, “at’s why there was a Reforma‐ tion. In order to prevent faith from becoming ideology, there has to be a constant Reforma‐ tion. I see the history of artistic avant-gardes as maybe a way to think about that act of Refor‐ mation - analogous to religion without being religious.”[49] is argument of Critchley’s, that the history of the avant-garde is a kind of Reformation, is very useful to this essay. Kant argues that enthusiasm is capable of inspiring events that break the continuum of history.[50] Participatory artists, through their enthusiasm, can disrupt political dogmas and effect political reformations today. Considering their passion for their cause, they can be thought of as mod‐ ern day Enthusiasts. Bruguera refers to enthusiasm as a kind of labour, and it is her methodology for political practice. In her art statement, she writes, ‘Politi‐ cal art is the one that is made when it is unfash‐ ionable and when it is uncomfortable, legally uncomfortable, civically uncomfortable, hu‐ manely uncomfortable. It affects us. Political art is uncomfortable knowledge.’[51] In an interview with Kathy Noble, curator for the Tanks at the Tate Modern Gallery, Bruguera states that the word for useful in Spanish is utìl, the same word that is used for tool.[52] Enthu‐ siasm is oen found in the toolbox of those at‐ tempting to overturn a system - religious, polit‐ ical or otherwise. Kant argued that enthusiasm is the ‘unbridling of the imagination’ and en‐ thusiasm is the tool that inspires the imagina‐ tion to view the world differently.[53]
Enthusiasm, Inspiration and the Body e sense of enthusiasm as inseparable from ac‐ tion has prevailed since its first use, and its ex‐ pressions have been located in the body in forms that are political, performative and pow‐ erful in eliciting a response. Since Plato, enthu‐ siasm and inspiration have always been grounded in the body. I will examine both in relationship to Bruguera’s early performances. Following that, I will consider the way that en‐ thusiasm manifests in the bodies of early reli‐ gious enthusiasts and how that type of overflow seems to reoccur in the modern body of Allen Ginsberg. Both Bruguera and Burmese perfor‐ mance artists take risks with their bodies and their enthusiasm is a method for overcoming fear. Finally, I will briefly explore oratory as a form of enthusiasm. Repeatedly orators and participatory artists harness rhetoric, rhythm and singing as a way to evoke inspiration in their audience.
Fig. 4. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), cartoon, © P. I. Antony Hare.
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Originating in preliterate Greece, Enthousias‐ mos was the primary mode of cultural trans‐ mission. Verse was used for its mnemonic suit‐ ability, the way it literally carried out several functions simultaneously for the transmission of culture such as epic poetry, military mes‐ sages, and any other message for which accura‐ cy was important. Judges, generals and princes used verse as a means to maximize the con‐ veyance of a message without loss.[54] Later, Enthousiasmos was translated from the Greek into the late Latin term inspiration, a word that is related to respiration, or breathing in, signify‐ ing a slight shi of emphasis from Enthousias‐ mos’ connotation of possession. Examining the Latin etymology of inspiration, Timothy Clark describes this encounter in terms of intensity ‘an empowering breath’, or an event that im‐ pacts the self in a way to prompt action.[55] In‐ spiration has the momentum of ‘a sounding en‐ ergy or power of speech…’, which it carries into its varied expressions.[56] If one imagines Dr. Martin Luther King’s (Fig. 7) cadence when he said, “I have a dream…” one can feel this sounding energy. us, contrary to the common perception of enthusiasm as solely a mood or an attitude, it is also corporal and leads to action. As I have stat‐ ed earlier it is important not to limit one’s view of enthusiasm’s expressions or to categorize en‐ thusiasm as only positive. For example, some of Bruguera’s bodily performances touch on dark themes and Allen Ginsberg had to defend Howl from charges of obscenity, however, in both cases their actions emerge from passionate commitments to their cause.[57]
Breathing in the Cause If modern inspiration ‘breathes in’ a cause as its muse then it would be accurate to describe the bodies of people who encounter injustice as that which moves and inspires Bruguera. In a speech in Boston on October 23rd 2011, aer the Occupy movement was already underway, Bruguera exclaimed: We speak mostly of the immigrants who made it - the ones that have millions and are celebri‐ ties - but what of those many amazing people who are immigrants and have not been al‐ lowed to make it? Why do they have to be criminalized for the sole reason that they are not part of the 1%? e immigrants that I know are the bravest people I have ever met. ey are the ones believing, they are the ones keeping the American Dream alive, even when it is evident that they hardly have access to it, when the American Dream has become a mi‐ rage. Nobody has the right to kill someone's dream. Nobody has the right to make the American Dream illegal.[58]
Enthusiasm!
tinctions between self and other’.[59] For exam‐ ple, the immigrants were inspired by the Amer‐ ican dream and in turn Bruguera is inspired by the immigrants, the ones who ‘believe’.[60] is same transitivity complicates the causal rela‐ tionship of inspiration – the inspired person or enthusiast simultaneously promulgates inspira‐ tion as well as seeking further, stronger inspira‐ tion for themselves. In other words, regarding most things in life, we are tempted to think in terms of cause and effect such as in science. But because enthusiasm/inspiration is circular in nature (e.g. Locke: enthusiasm’s circular logic or Hyde: enthusiasm is its own currency - as it is paid out it is received back again) it feeds on itself. It inspires others and in inspiring them its own inspiration grows. Bruguera’s early performances are located (and inspired) within her body. e Burden of Guilt (1997-1999) was a solo performance piece that was inspired by historical accounts of the in‐ digenous Cubans and their final resistance to their European conquerors. Cuban oral history suggests that the native peoples of Cuba com‐ mitted mass suicides when it became evident that they were unable to resist the superior mil‐ itary force of the invading Spanish troops (1511-1512). Rather than submit or surrender they are said to have committed suicide by eat‐ ing the dirt of their native soil in a final act of defiance. Bruguera re-enacted this act of de‐ spairing defiance by rolling balls out of dirt and saltwater and eating them while appearing naked, sitting with a lamb carcass tied around her neck. Both her nudity and the carcass are symbolic of her ancestors’ vulnerability and sacrifice. Understood by Bruguera as an act of passive resistance, the suicide of the native Cubans makes a political reference to the op‐ pressive regime in modern Cuba where acts of political defi ance or rebellion remain dangerous. She was inspired by her ancestors’ resistance and chose to resist modern Cuban authorities herself. Bruguera had personally experienced repres‐ sion and censorship through the consequences of another work that she had made early in her career. (Fig. 5): 'I made a newspaper, Memory of the Post-War (1993-1994), which was an art piece that looks like an “art newspaper” but edited like an or‐ dinary newspaper. I invited artists to write typical sections on sports or agriculture, as a metaphor of the political and artistic situation in Cuba at the time. I was called to the Arts Council and was told to destroy the newspa‐ per; one friend who helped me with this piece was detained and the person who printed it was expelled from his job.'[61] Bruguera would go on to relay how deeply ‘dis‐ turbing’ this incident had been for her at the beginning of her career. It had raised conflict‐ ing emotions of guilt, regret, worry but also de‐ fiance, causing her to consider questions such as ‘Do I bend toward their demands, or do I do my own work?’[62] In the end Bruguera evi‐
We may call him a fanatic – an enthusiast – but these are titles of honour, they signify the devotion and entire surrendering of himself to his cause. Where there is sincerity there is truth also. Henry David oreau Clark writes ‘to be inspired is, necessarily, to in‐ spire others…’ that inspiration ‘may bear a pe‐ culiar transitivity, one that confounds the dis‐
dently decided that the importance and urgen‐ cy of the cause outweighed any concerns over the ramifications of censorship and opposition. Political enthusiasm takes risks – risks with one’s own body and the bodies of others.[63]
e issue raised, that of freedom of speech, be‐ came one of the defining themes of the next fif‐ teen years of Bruguera’s work. An example of this that relates to the Memory of the Postwar is the performance e Body of Silence
Fig. 5. Memory of the Postwar (1993-1994), newspaper, © Tania Bruguera. (1997-1998), a parallel work of Bruguera’s, which also critiqued the lack of freedom in modern Cuban society. Again sitting naked, huddled in the corner of a box lined with raw lamb meat, she visited the sacrificial theme ex‐ hibited in e Burden of Guilt. Making scrib‐ bled changes in an official Cuban history text‐ book, she licked her scribblings off the pages by implication to conceal her criticism. Seemingly fearful, Bruguera then tore off and ate the pages she had written in an apparent attempt to elimi‐ nate any risk of detection of her seditious act of writing or of the writings themselves. ese performances constitute an expression of en‐ thusiasm in the sense that they can be viewed as intended to inspire artists and others to over‐ come anxiety in exchange for freedom, even when it requires the possibility of harm against one’s person. e cause, in this case Bruguera’s fellow Cubans who were deprived freedom of speech, is privileged over fear. It is inspiration for freedom and art that enables performance artists in Burma to overcome seri‐ ous threats to their personal well-being. e Burmese Ministry of Information controls all arts communication as well as all artistic pro‐ duction. Every gallery must ask for permission regarding every artwork that is exhibited and they do not tolerate anything that they deem to be controversial. ‘Within what amounts to a devastatingly narrow range of options…those who perform do so illegally, at unsanctioned gatherings where their freedom of expression comes from claiming the body as one’s own be‐ yond the censor’s grasp.’[64] In 2011, in an in‐ conspicuous building and location, the New Zero Art Gallery in Rangoon hosted the Nip‐ pon Performance Festival. Most performances engaged along traditional lines such as Bud‐ dhism and food preparation, by which the artists refuse to allow the erasure of their peo‐ ples’ traditions.[65] e work of artist Aye we we is particularly significant. In her performance Path (2011) she moves along a runway made from hundreds of pieces of tex‐ tiles. She struggles to pull a red suitcase behind her, as she tries to tread forward she is held back, straining, ‘bumping over discarded bits of colourful cloth.’ we we says that this is ‘symbolic of the poverty the people of Myanmar endure.’ ese performance artists’ passion isn’t only for liberty itself but also the freedom to make the art that they choose. Almost every performer among the young generation of
Burmese performance artists has spent approxi‐ mately three years in prison for ‘threatening the longevity of the State of Myanmar.’ Artist Aye Ko said, ‘When I was in prison I had nothing to do. All I could think about was art. I had no pen, no paper. e art that was inside of me had no frame. is is how I be‐ came a performing artist’. e body is the only site that this artist has control over and there‐ fore this is the location for his inspiration. En‐ thusiasm for these artists’ work now extends beyond Burma existing in the form of author Elizabeth Rush who wrote the recent frieze arti‐ cle about their performances and in turn her article is now inspiring the outside world.[66] Like the adverse experiences of Bruguera or the Burmese performance artists, there was oen a pejorative response to historical religious En‐ thusiasts. eir religious experiences were af‐ fective and politically disruptive. ‘us Enthusi‐ asm, the moment of acquaintance with the di‐ vine, sometimes presented itself bodily, as with the devotional quaking of the Quakers… e Ecstasys expressed themselves’ as the Earl of Shaesbury put it, ‘outwardly in the Quakings, Tremblings, Tossing of the Head and Limbs, Agitations and Fanatical rows or Convul‐ sions, extemporary Prayer, Prophecy and the like.’[67] Enthusiasm overflows its container. It is too powerful at times for its body to hold. For the early Enthusiasts of the seventeenth century, claiming direct access to God opened up the possibility to denounce the religious and civil powers of their day by appealing to a high‐ er authority. Perhaps the climate of religious strife created by the English Civil War indirect‐ ly encouraged the ‘increasingly provocative prominence of assertions of personal inspira‐ tion within groups divided by sectarianism and opposing types of authority’. Once religious dogma and its corresponding bureaucratic structure was challenged in one place (e.g. Oliv‐ er Cromwell and the Puritan faction) the door to religious dissent on the basis of personal rev‐ elation was permanently opened. While the corollaries between political dissent and reli‐ gious dissent are very different in most respects, freedom from any religious or political oppres‐ sion begins in the individual body. e types of physical expressions of the Enthu‐ siasts persist in modern exhibitions of enthusi‐ asm. Considering the Shakers (Fig. 6), David Herd says, ‘I have in my mind a poetry reading, extemporary, agitated: Allen Ginsberg, say, in San Francisco.’[68] e event he is referring to was Ginsberg’s famous recital of Howl, the poem credited with ushering in the era of beat poetry in 1955. An audience member who at‐ tended that evening claimed, ‘…e poem brought down the house…we felt that a body had been thrown against the barricades’ and John Leland, author of Hip: A History said that the recital was, "more than just a poem, but a performance and an act of will. Ginsberg flayed
Fig. 6. Shakers dancing, c. 1840, engraving, © public domain. himself for his audience."[69] Ginsberg's ani‐ mated recital both revealed his enthusiasm and caused a similar reaction in his audience. ey leaped to their feet, shrieked, shouted, clapped and yelled, thus exceeding the usual reactions exhibited at an average poetry reading both in strength and display of emotion. ese emo‐ tions had political implications. Howl is one of
Enthusiasm!
5
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. Horace Mann were given a chance to process their feelings about police repression in Russia during the time of the Soviet Union by discussing them with a former KGB agent. By allowing the par‐ ticipants to express their emotions and opinions about police repression in this manner, Bruguera aimed to provide a forum for explor‐ ing the Soviet Union’s lack of freedom of speech. rough asking her participants to take these actions, she created a situation/art that cut against their ingrained behaviour patterns which had been formed through years of coer‐ cion. Bruguera’s aim in Behaviour Art is to cre‐ ate situations and environments in which pas‐ sive participants are brought into active agency, which for Bruguera means explicitly political agency. As Bruguera states, she aims at “trans‐ forming the audience” into “citizen(s).”
Oratories of Enthusiasm Oratory involves the speaking body and it is difficult to consider enthusiasm, its history and its proponents without noting its power to in‐ spire an audience.
Fig. 7. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), photograph by Marion S. Trikosko, © public do‐ main. America’s most influential literary pieces be‐ cause it permanently liberalised US publishing’s free speech rights, thus opening the door for a wave of beat poets in its wake.[70] Francesco Ventrella has argued, ‘Since its origi‐ nary use in Platonic aesthetics, Enthousiasmos, which referred to the rhapsode’s inspiration that is ‘inhaled from god’ and passed on to his lis‐ teners, has been defined through the forms of its embodiment. In this sense, it is also crucial to engage in a critical reflection on the phe‐
Fig. 8. Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926) in 1918, first head of the secret police of the Soviet Union, photograph, © public domain.
nomenon of enthusiasm through art as a ‘living shape.’[71] Bruguera is an example of this ‘liv‐ ing shape’ in locating her use of political enthu‐ siasm in her own body. More recently, however, her work is situated in the bodies of her audi‐ ence. In speaking of why she chose perfor‐ mance as a medium, Bruguera says, ‘I was look‐ ing for a less passive way to engage with the au‐ dience, a way in which they would also feel in‐ volved…I was very attracted to the idea of art as something ephemeral; as an experience, as something one lived through…as an agent for social change…’[72] Whereas there was a need for accuracy in cultural transmission when Ent‐ housiasmos was utilised in Ancient Greece the enthusiasm in participatory art today has a dif‐ ferent requirement. Enthusiasm also acts as an agent, or a mode, for provoking questions or emotions. Bruguera’s early performances have a didactic quality however will see that her work becomes more diffused over the years, more fo‐ cused and yet somehow less resolved. Perhaps this is because Bruguera gained critical distance when her performances were no longer located in her body but in others. Presenting a year-long project as part of the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, in Untitled/Trust Workshop (Moscow, 2007) Bruguera created a photo studio in which par‐ ticipants and their families were asked to pose with a portrait of Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926 Fig. 8), the founder of the Soviet secret police. e participants were given the opportunity to decide whether they wanted to pose with an ea‐ gle or a monkey, consequently communicating their positive or negative opinions through their choice of animal. At the same time they
In 1740, in a pamphlet describing spiritual ‘En‐ thusiast’ George Whitfield (1714-1770), the preacher and friend of John Wesley who brought Methodism to America, Samuel Weller wrote, ‘It is in the nature of enthusiasm to be quick, precipitate and sudden: it does not ‘argue’ and ‘reason’ and ‘draw’ its Conclusions slowly and maturely, but steps forward to the ‘consequence’ in a moment without hesitating and demurring upon the premises.’[73] e dy‐ namic effect of the inspiration that comes with the ‘power of speech’ has been attested to in the sermons of o-called Enthusiast John Wesley (1703-1791). An observer exclaimed that they made his ‘heart beat like the pendulum of a clock’. Bruguera's performances can have a sim‐ ilar impact on people. Hearts were pounding when two years aer the Moscow action she inspired audience participa‐ tion and enthusiastic interaction in Freedom of Speech/Tatlin’s Whisper #6 (Havana Version, 2009), held in the central patio of the Wilfredo Lam Center in Havana. Staging an art-political protest in defence of freedom of speech in Cuba, Bruguera set up a podium flanked by a man and a woman in military uniforms, opened the microphone and gave members of the audience one minute each to express their opinions without any constraint, restriction or censorship. Each speaker had a white dove placed on his or her shoulder in an obvious ref‐ erence to Fidel Castro’s iconic first speech aer the victory of the Communist revolution in 1959. irty-nine volunteers took the opportu‐ nity to share their thoughts in over forty-one minutes. While many of the volunteers shared their feelings passionately (one volunteer spent her entire minute of free speech crying into the microphone), the performance remained under control. Some of the participants such as the re‐ spected blogger Yoani Sanchez used their turn at the microphone to criticise the restricted freedom of speech in Cuba. e views ex‐ pressed varied widely ranging from severe criti‐ cism of the Cuban government and demands for greater freedom, to support for the Com‐ munist government. e audience was given two hundred disposable flash cameras with which to document the event at will. Bruguera claimed that they provided a participatory role
for the audience but were also intended to pro‐ tect the speakers from political persecution for the views they expressed by guaranteeing a high degree of public transparency.[74] One result was that the performance reached a level of public exposure that could not be ignored by the Cuban authorities. e piece was immedi‐ ately condemned by the organisers of the Ha‐ vana Biennale as unpatriotic and was cancelled aer the first performance.[75] Freedom of Speech/Tatlin’s Whisper #6 (Havana Version, 2009) drew the sternest rebuke out of all her performances and the most forceful criticism from Cuban government censors. is is what the body’s voice does. irty-nine expressions of freedom of speech could not be ignored by the Cuban government. is ‘sounding energy’ of inspiration is a powerful political force. Across the ocean, a generation aer John Wes‐ ley, the black American Fredrick Douglass (1818-1895), himself a famous speaker, de‐ scribed the improbable orator Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), former slave, abolitionist and one of the first black feminists on record, as ‘a strange compound of wit and wisdom, of wild enthusiasm and flint-like common sense.’ While Douglass, also a former slave, later in life through oratory sought to inspire people by ‘speak(ing) and act(ing) like a person of cultiva‐ tion and refinement’, thus coining the contro‐ versial phrase ‘Use the master’s tools to tear down his house’, Truth utilised her lack of liter‐ acy as a form of rhetoric in an attempt to dis‐ rupt the political legalities that were holding her back as a woman and a former slave.[76] Because Sojourner Truth was a woman, she was not considered a citizen and therefore was not officially American and yet she is known as one of the United States’ most enthusiastic orators. [77] She was six feet tall, angular and carried a deep voice. She once said, “I don’t read such small stuff as letters, I read men and nations. I can see through a millstone, though I can’t see through a spelling book.”[78] Although she was famous for her speech ‘Ain’t I a woman?’ Truth also employed singing as a type of oratory and was renowned for her power to effect people through her songs, oen applying her own words to familiar tunes. One of her most wellknown songs, “I am pleading for my people” was sung to the tune “Auld Lang Syne”. It was reprinted in the third person in the magazine Aurora (undated) and the journalist wrote, ‘If earnestness is eloquence - and it is - she has a just claim… for she makes powerful appeals which cannot but strike a chord of sympathy in every human heart.’ Perhaps this is because when Truth sang, she inspired others from the body that bore ‘the scars of many a gash.’
I am pleading for my people A poor, down-trodden race Who dwell in Freedom's boasted land, With no abiding place. I am pleading that my people May have their rights restored For they have long been toiling, And yet have no reward. I bear upon my body e scars of many a gash, I am pleading for my people at groan beneath the lash.[79] But while your kindest sympathies To foreign lands do roam, I ask you to remember Your own oppressed at home. I plead with you to sympathize With sighs, and groans, and scars. And note how base the tyranny Beneath the stripes and stars.
6
In 2002, Eleanor Heartney could have been writing about Sojourner Truth when she said, ‘In Bruguera’s world, concepts like freedom, lib‐ erty and self-determination are not abstract ideals, but achievements that write their affects on our physical forms.’[80] ese achievements of enthusiasm, its inherent ability to cause the body to inspire, echo across history. As we will see, the seemingly singular nature of enthusi‐ asm located in the body (one body, one voice) is in fact plural. For enthusiasm to be influential it cannot exist on its own.
To Kindle with Enthusiasm Enthusiasm is contagious; it carries within it an inherent ability and desire to influence as well as a potent power of impartation. It follows that education is a suitable vehicle. ‘Bruguera’s aim is to create art that actively inhabits cultural, political and social power structures in an attempt to influence rather than represent them.’[81] rough education, enthusiasm is multiplied. Its ideas and methods proliferate. To begin, enthusiasm may spark in one person but central to its nature is its intractable propensity to spread like fire. Lord Shasbury wrote, ‘an enthusiast’s urge is to kindle in other chests the fire that is in one’s own’ and Bruguera’s Cátedra Arte de Conducta was influential as an uncon‐ ventional art school.[82] Best known for his encyclopaedia, French philosopher and art critic Diderot (1713-1784) in writing the entry for enthusiasm described it as ‘A living fire which prevails by degrees, which feeds from its own flames and which, far from becoming feebler as it expands, acquires new strength in proportion to the extent that it spreads and communicates itself.’ [83] To ‘en‐ thuse’, writes the OED is to ‘kindle with Enthu‐ siasm’.[84] e philosopher Edmund Burke (1729–1797) wrote in the concluding section of his famous book A Philosophical Inquiry Into e Origin Of Our Ideas Of e Sublime And Beautiful, ‘…by the contagion of our passions we catch a fire already kindled in another.’ [85] A peculiar eighteenth century embodiment of this discussion is John Wesley (1703–1791). As a child, Wesley was the only member of his family to remain trapped inside a fire that was burning down the rectory, their family home. Aer his father had repeatedly gone back into the flames unsuccessfully attempting to rescue him, the family gathered outside in a circle to mourn. At the same time the five-year-old Wes‐ ley managed to get the attention of a neighbour who stood on another man’s shoulders in order to rescue him from an upstairs window before the building burned to the ground. Upon see‐ ing his son Wesley’s father famously exclaimed, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the burning?”[86] It is said that later, as an adult, the famous preacher would advise, “Set yourself on fire and people will come for miles to watch you burn”. Yet Wesley was not advocating en‐ thusiastic performance without substance. His famous sermon criticised enthusiasm’s excesses (when its outward displays were greater than its heart).[87] He felt strongly that enthusiasm should not just be expressions of emotion; Wes‐ ley’s looked outward and sought radical social change. As much an educator as a minister, he was a personal friend of William Wilberforce and wrote a treatise in support of the abolition of slavery. He became the father of Methodism, influencing countless others through the found‐ ing of universities in addition to inspiring Methodism’s many abolitionists, social activists and prison reformers.[88]
Enthusiasm!
is ‘itch of imparting’ of ‘kindling the same fire in other breasts’ is the multiplying and transmutable affect of enthusiasm.[89] In An‐ cient Greece its trajectory was singular. It was limited to the exchange between the god and the poet. Approximately five hundred years lat‐ er it was no longer the god possessing a single individual but scores of people who were ‘breathing in’ the Spirit at the same time. ‘On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meet‐ ing together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. en, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit…’ (Acts 2:2)[90] In a speech given at Occupy wall street on October 9, 2011, athe‐ ist philosopher Slavoj Žižek (Fig. 9) said, ‘ey will tell us we are un-American. But when con‐ servative fundamentalists tell you that America is a Christian nation, remember what Chris‐ tianity is: the Holy Spirit, the free egalitarian community of believers united by love. We here are the Holy Spirit…’[91] e spirit that came at Delphi was not the same Spirit that came at Pentecost. Nor was the Spirit that fell on the scores (in the upper room) the same spirit that was present at Occupy Wall Street, but all are evidences of the etymology of the term which has been related to the Greek word pneuma, meaning breath or wind, or the Hebrew word ruach, meaning wind, breath, or mind.[92] Like the wind, you cannot see the spirit of enthusi‐ asm but you can feel it and you can hear it and as a flame, you can pass it on. Enthusiasm’s kin‐ dling is alive and well, on November 9th, 2012, e Times reported that at his first press confer‐ ence, amidst the clamour of questions, before saying a word of introduction, Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury prayed, ‘Come Holy Spirit to the hearts of your people, and kindle in them the fire of your love’.[93] David Herd writes, …love, as Paul presents it acts like enthusiasm: it operates on the indi‐ vidual to animate and enhance the voice. It also acts as enthusiasm: it goes outwards, it seeks not itself, it permits knowledge and en‐ ables the knower to be known. It is also more than enthusiasm in that, for instance, it beareth and endureth, but then since, as Paul would have it, God is love, and since enthusi‐ asm is, at its origin a way of acquainting one‐ self with God, of breathing the god in, then there is undeniably an enthusiasm in love.[94] Love may not be the first term that comes to mind when one considers participatory art, but the love I am speaking of in this essay is not sentiment or fancy. is is love as a kind of rad‐ ical following through of one’s aim. It conta‐ giously involves others. It has clarity of vision and sometimes that includes the radical con‐ frontation of accepted truths, of what some
Fires can't be made with dead embers nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. James Baldwin might view as extreme experimentation with new systems. What is the opposite of enthusi‐ asm? Earlier in this essay I argued that it is pes‐ simism, but perhaps apathy is more accurate. Not all art need be inherently detached; there is a place for passion in art. e influence of en‐ thusiasm is powerful and wide-sweeping, par‐ ticularly when art becomes a teacher.
Described by James Joyce as a ‘miracle worker’ in regard to the intellectual debt that he owed him, the enthusiast, poet and critic Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was, as Herd writes, ‘…first and foremost, a teacher and a campaigner.’ He has always been impelled, not merely to find out for himself how poetry should be written, but to pass on the benefits of his discoveries to others;
e process that Bruguera uses for both art and education is what she calls Arte de Conducta, or Behaviour Art, inspired by the performances of early Dada and Soviet constructivists as well as los 80s a generation of Cuban artists.[100] She states, “I want to work with reality, not the representation of reality. I don’t want my work to represent something. I want people not to
Fig. 9. Slavoj Žižek at Liberty Square, photograph, © copyright G.S. Carly. not simply to make these benefits available; but to insist upon their being received. He would cajole, and almost coerce, other men into writ‐ ing well; so that he oen presents the appear‐ ance of a man trying to convey to a very deaf person the fact that the house is on fire. Every change he has advocated has always struck him as being of instant urgency…He has cared deeply that his contemporaries and juniors should write well; he has cared less for his per‐ sonal achievement than for the life of letters and art…’[95] Bruguera, also a teacher and a campaigner, has said, ‘Education is about the ethic of knowledge, it is the creation of a think‐ ing structure and the modelling of sensibility that will prevail on someone's life for a long time…’[96] Both Pound and Bruguera kindle with enthusiasm. eir pedagogy is similar to Emerson’s who wanted his enthusiasm ‘to act on people’ so that they would take their ideas into the world.[97] Not a fan of traditional forms of bureaucratic education, Pound said, ‘Bureaucrats are a pox… ey are supposed to be necessary, but then, certain chemicals in the body are supposed to be necessary to life, but cause death the mo‐ ment they increase beyond a suitable limit.’[98] Less vitriolic than Pound but also critical of bu‐ reaucratic forms of education, Bruguera privi‐ leges art: ‘ere is a fundamental difference be‐ tween education and art. Education transmit‐ ting elements of consensus; art disrupting them. Education is the transmission and mem‐ orization of elements that makes us a collective based in a sense of truth that has been agreed previously and before the actual delivering of the data. Art is a space leading into new organi‐ zation of meanings and that sometimes is done through chaos or through confronting an estab‐ lished sense of truth.’[99]
look at it but to be in it, sometimes even with‐ out knowing it is art.” For example, in 2008 at the Tate Modern gallery in London, Bruguera performed Tatlin’s Whisper #5 (2008) where two police officers in uniform, mounted on horseback, employed crowd control methods developed to deal with riots, commandeering the audience through the Turbine Hall. Al‐ though the audience knew that this was art, rather than looking at it they were inside it, and a part of it. For a period of time this was not art alone, it was also reality. Bruguera began Cátedra Arte de Conducta, her Behaviour Art School, in 2002 and it ran until 2009 following an academically unorthodox pattern. It was, as Claire Bishop described it, ‘art that engages with reality, particularly at the interface of usefulness and illegality – since ethics and law are, for Bruguera, domains that need continually to be tested.’[101] e pro‐ gram was affiliated with the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba and aimed to provide an alternative to the art training provided with‐ in the Cuban system of higher education.[102] ough it advertised itself as the only institute of higher art education in Cuba, students did not receive academic credits. One of her first forays into education since teaching at the Es‐ cuela de Conducta Eduardo Marante, it was de‐ signed as a two-year art school, led and funded primarily by Bruguera herself. Computer equipment and all literature, as well as visiting tutors’ expenses were paid for out of Bruguera’s personal finances. Again, her interest was not to gain financially but that her enthusiasm ‘would act on people’. Bishop writes, ‘Although Bruguera views the project as a work of art, she does not address what might be artistic in Cáte‐ dra Arte de Conducta. Her criterion is the pro‐ duction of a new generation of socially and po‐ litically engaged artists in Cuba, but also the ex‐ posure of visiting lecturers to new ways of thinking about teaching in context.’[103]
Enthusiasm!
e school’s location was in the heart of Old Havana, a distinctly urban context which meant that the students’ work found a resonance with the city. Bishop, a visiting lecturer in 2007, wrote of Cátedra Arte de Conducta’s flexibility and innovation, ‘…workshops take place in the house, but also in the streets or the park, or wherever the visiting lecturers choose to oper‐ ate. In the past this has included museums, sci‐ ence labs and people’s houses.’[104] Bruguera’s home was the main facility of the school, pro‐ viding space for classes, accommodation for visiting lecturers and artists, space for commu‐ nal meals for the students and even at times ac‐ commodation for students, many of whom would use Bruguera’s own room when she was absent. It was also the centre of the school’s so‐ cial calendar with a Friday night Fiesta hosted at the end of each weeklong workshop, giving a distinctly communal feel to the school. Cátedra Arte de Conducta followed an open curricular format and invited guests, former students, artists and members of the general public to lectures. Bishop recollects, ‘In London I taught on a curating course with a strong emphasis on collaboration and I was always deflated by the overriding mood of competition and one-up‐ manship and the students’ tendency to treat vis‐ iting lecturers as an opportunity for networking. ere was no sense of this in Ha‐ vana…’ Enthusiasm is particularly influential (both for students and teachers) when it exists in the form of solidarity. Case in point, Bishop reported that, this was, ‘one of the most intense and rewarding teaching experiences of my ca‐ reer to date.’[105] While rigorous, the school’s goals were not pri‐ marily academic. In her log, Bishop noted that all of the students made ‘interventions in public space’ and Bruguera’s influence in their work was seen particularly in their criticism of the European art that Bishop showed to them: ‘e gripe that arises repeatedly is that it is merely symbolic and metaphorical, rather than engag‐ ing directly in reality.’[106] A student of Bruguera’s named Susana Delahante stood out in the crit, and in Bishop’s mind her work, per‐ haps, took these ideas too far. Earlier that year
7
the student had been ‘artificially inseminated with the semen of a dead man; the point was to show that parts of the body continue to live af‐ ter the rest of it dies.’[107] One can see Bruguera’s impact in the extreme way that this student was ‘working (with) reality, not the rep‐ resentation of reality.’[108] e philosophy of Cátedra Arte de Conducta demonstrated the influence it hoped to transmit through enthusiasm. It was a ‘long term inter‐ vention focused on the discussion and analysis of socio-political behaviour and the under‐ standing of art as an instrument for the trans‐ formation of ideology through the activation of civic action…Actions aimed at transforming some spaces in society through art…’[109] During the period that she ran Cátedra Arte de Conducta for example, Bruguera created some of the controversial performances discussed previously. As the school aimed to function as a ‘site and political-timing specific piece’, so her own work in the Untitled series, which ran from 2000 to 2010, produced site and political-tim‐ ing specific critiques which expressed the liber‐ ated political dialogue that she aimed to foster in and through the school. Central to its core it maintained its express goal to become an influ‐ ential model.[110] In this it succeeded. Cátedra Arte de Conducta was ‘…the first work of art and, at the same time, the first institution focusing on creating a curriculum of Behaviour Art and of Political Art. us it has become a model for educational projects of a social and artistic nature and for artistic projects focused in offering educational activities.’[111] Numer‐ ous other art pedagogic projects have emerged since. For example, Waiting for Godot (2007) is a project by artist Paul Chan that works with schools that were devastated by hurricane Kat‐ rina in New Orleans. Another artist working this way would be Pawel Althamer who began in the 1990s by teaching ceramics classes on Friday nights and has developed a project that is now called Common Task. is is a long run‐ ning collaboration of educational projects which are largely unexhibitable such as the Ein‐ stein Class (2006), a six month long program
that teaches physics to juvenile delinquents who have been expelled from school. Since 2004, omas Hirschhorn, too, has created a peda‐ gogic project called Musée Précaire Albinet where he works with local residents to install seven weekly exhibitions of artworks that are loaned from the Centre di Pompidou. In turn these exhibitions are curated by local residents for local residents of Aubervilliers District of northeast Paris near Hirschhorn’s studio.[112] Socrates described enthusiasm by likening it to magnetic rings that transferred their magnetic properties onto other iron rings through touch or proximity.[113] Seeking to amplify the trans‐ missive qualities of their enthusiasm, some‐ times participatory artists create this kind of proximity, even community, through the cre‐ ation of unconventional schools and pedagogic projects. ‘Both art and education can have longterm goals, and they can be equally demateri‐ alised, but imagination and daring are crucial to both.’[114]
Enthusiasm the Friend of Civil Liberty Enthusiasm ‘imagines’ new forms of freedom for all people not just the few. A contemporary evidence of this is evolving through Bruguera’s long-term political art project, Immigrant Movement International (2010-ongoing). IMI attempts to rupture the power structures that keep immigrants subject to discriminatory laws without equal access to opportunities. Its ‘Mi‐ grant Manifesto’, first read by Bruguera at the United Nations Student Conference on Human Rights, is a resounding call for the civil liberties of (im)migrant workers.[115] I will consider how enthusiasm is a friend of civil liberty in re‐ gard to this project but I will also look at the demands that are made on this political enthu‐ siasm. For it to achieve its goals it must be will‐ ing to pay a price. Immigrant Movement Inter‐ national utilizes enthusiasm to create civil liber‐
ty. Remember, Bruguera argued that the way we give our voice to others is ‘not only through our declarations but also through our enthusiasm…’[116] Enthusiasm is a gi and as we will see, it remains in circulation. Between 1742 and 1754 Scottish philosopher David Hume wrote the essay, ‘Of Superstition and Enthusiasm’ in which he argued that en‐ thusiasm is the friend of civil liberty.[117] ough on the surface it appears that Hume’s argument, contrasting enthusiasm and supersti‐ tion, is a discussion about religious matters, ac‐ tually he is considering ‘secular modes of knowledge’ as well as the contrast between en‐ thusiasm which challenges, even ruptures, au‐ thority structures and superstition which rein‐ forces them.[118] He argued that, ‘Superstition comes from weakness, fear, melancholy and ig‐ norance, enthusiasm also shares ignorance but has its roots in hope, pride, presumption and a warm imagination. Superstition reinforces ec‐ clesiastical authority, whereas enthusiasm is a friend of civil liberty’.[119] In this way, enthusi‐ asm is not only a partner in the revolt against bureaucracy but also an ally of those who are seeking civil liberties and freedoms. Unlike superstition, for Hume, enthusiasm shares with ‘sound reason’ and philosophy an antinomian resistance to ‘priestly power’. ‘All enthusiasts’, he writes, ‘have been freed from the yoke of ecclesiastics, and have expressed great independence of devotion; with the con‐ tempt of forms, ceremonies and traditions.’[120] Enthusiasts, then, are emanci‐ pated. Hume portrays enthusiasm as having a developmental arc, beginning with violent fury and pressing towards moderation, which can be seen among the activities of Levellers, Covenanters and Anabaptists. ‘e Anabaptist movement, which originated in Europe during the Protestant reformation, broke with Luther…Because of their vehement insistence on complete separation of church and state and their refusal to swear civil oaths, the Anabap‐ tists were widely persecuted by civil authorities. In the Peasants Revolt of 1528, radical Anabap‐ tists in Germany, under the leadership of omas Munster, made war on civil authority and attempted to establish by force a Christian commonwealth based on absolute equality and the community of goods.’ Enthusiasm’s ‘pre‐ sumptuous boldness of character…begets the most extreme resolutions…‘being the infirmity of bold and ambitious tempers, (it) is naturally accompanied by a spirit of liberty…’[121] ere is a real danger in bringing a very differ‐ ent past together with the present in an attempt to compare them, but I am not comparing events, outcomes or the historical particulars of movements. I am comparing their enthusiasm and desire for civil liberty and similar to Herd’s association of Ginsberg with the Shaker’s ec‐ stasies, when I read Hume’s discussion of the Anabaptists envisioning a communal world I ‘have in my mind’ Bruguera’s enthusiastic de‐ scription of the international community that formed in the weeks before Occupy. In a speech given at Occupy Boston, Bruguera remembered the time leading up to Occupy Wall Street:
Fig.10. International Migrants Day, December 18, 2011, Immigrant Movement International, photograph © Anjali Cadambi.
A few weeks before we started to occupy Wall Street, the first planning meetings included people, living in the United States, who came here from Greece, Spain, Tunisia and Egypt, p e opl e w ho were tr ansmitting their knowledge, their experience with earlier movements. It was from them that we learned the ways in which the General Assemblies were conducted, the contradictions and chal‐ lenges we were going to go through with our movement… Some of them were undocu‐ mented immigrants and their status was not important to any of us planning the occupa‐ tion - nobody asked about their legal status.
8
Enthusiasm!
5. We affirm that being a migrant does not mean belonging to a specific social class nor carrying a particular legal status. To be a mi‐ grant means to be an explorer; it means move‐ ment, this is our shared condition. Solidarity is our wealth. 6. We acknowledge that individual people with inalienable rights are the true barometer of civi‐ lization. We identify with the victories of the abolition of slavery, the civil rights movement, the advancement of women’s rights, and the ris‐ ing achievements of the LGBTQ community. It is our urgent responsibility and our historical duty to make the rights of migrants the next tri‐ umph in the quest for human dignity. It is in‐ evitable that the poor treatment of migrants to‐ day will be our dishonour tomorrow. 7. We assert the value of the human experience and the intellectual capacity that migrants bring with them as greatly as any labour they provide. We call for the respect of the cultural, social, technical, and political knowledge that mi‐ grants command. Fig.11. International Migrants Day, December 18, 2011, Immigrant Movement International, photograph © Anjali Cadambi. We were all living together. e movement grew, more people joined, many immigrants blending with the rest as equals, dedicating their knowledge and sleepless hours, so that we could together build this amazing move‐ ment - a global movement redefining the very idea of democracy. In this movement - a movement that speaks beyond borders - it makes no sense to cling to an old definition of national identities that re‐ strict who people can be, what they can con‐ tribute and whether they can participate. is is a time of responsibility - a responsibility first to make this space safe for all, including immigrants, and then a responsibility to take this new democracy beyond this square. [122]
(Im)migration Beginning in April 2011, previous to the time of her participation with Occupy, Bruguera founded a multi-purpose community space lo‐ cated in a storefront on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, New York which functions as the headquarters for Immigrant Movement Interna‐ tional.[123] is project is focused on immigra‐ tion reform by working and collaborating with both local and international communities, so‐ cial service organizations, elected officials and artists.[124] ‘As migration becomes a more cen‐ tral element of contemporary existence, the sta‐ tus and identity of those who live outside their place of origin starts to become defined not by sharing a common language, class, culture, or race, but instead by the condition as immi‐ grants’, asserts Bruguera. ‘is project seeks to embrace this common identity and shared hu‐ man experience to create new ways for immi‐ grants to achieve social recognition.’[125] IMI stands in solidarity with illegal immigrants, both in the USA and internationally. Run by a small handful of volunteers, several of whom are artists, IMI offers practical assistance and education to local residents from South and Central American countries. For example, they offer legal advice, computer courses, literacy, art training and health classes. Additionally, as is the case in every offering, all are welcome to at‐ tend English classes, weekly screenings of films addressing human rights or a twelve hour poet‐ ry marathon with immigrant poets. e aims of these programmes are manifold: reading classes engage with art history, health classes incorpo‐ rate Asian cultural elements such as Tai Chi to help IMI’s clientele integrate better with their predominantly Asian neighbours in the bor‐ ough, and theatre workshops offer stress relief
as well as an engagement with political ideas and realities.[126] One of the goals of IMI ‘is to bring the cause of civil rights for immigrants into the public sphere. How to do so effectively is the question.’ [127] An ongoing series of communi‐ ty meetings focused on this subject. ‘e IMI project constructs a direct negotiation with po‐ litical and social organisations, and investigates the perception, recognition, and representation of immigrants by means of an artist initiated socio-political movement.’[128] For the first time, on December 2nd, 2011, Tania Bruguera read the ‘Migrant Manifesto’ on behalf of Immigrant Movement International, at the United Nations Student Conference on Hu‐ man Rights.[129]
Migrant Manifesto We have been called many names. Illegals. Aliens. Guest Workers. Border crossers. Unde‐ sirables. Exiles. Criminals. Non-citizens. Ter‐ rorists. ieves. Foreigners. Invaders. Undocu‐ mented. Our voices converge on these principles: 1. We know that international connectivity is the reality that migrants have helped create, it is the place where we all reside. We understand that the quality of life of a person in a country is contingent on migrants’ work. We identify as part of the engine of change. 2. We are all tied to more than one country. e multilaterally shaped phenomenon of migra‐ tion cannot be solved unilaterally, or else it gen‐ erates a vulnerable reality for migrants. Imple‐ menting universal rights is essential. e right to be included belongs to everyone. 3. We have the right to move and the right to not be forced to move. We demand the same privileges as corporations and the international elite, as they have the freedom to travel and to establish themselves wherever they choose. We are all worthy of opportunity and the chance to progress. We all have the right to a better life. 4. We believe that the only law deserving of our respect is an unprejudiced law, one that protects everyone, everywhere. No exclusions. No ex‐ ceptions. We condemn the criminalization of migrant lives.
8. We are convinced that the functionality of in‐ ternational borders should be re-imagined in the service of humanity. 9. We understand the need to revive the con‐ cept of the commons, of the earth as a space that everyone has the right to access and enjoy. 10. We witness how fear creates boundaries, how boundaries create hate and how hate only serves the oppressors. We understand that mi‐ grants and non-migrants are interconnected. When the rights of migrants are denied the rights of citizens are at risk. Dignity has no na‐ tionality. Immigrant Movement International November, 2011 inking back on America’s history, most labour during the rise of Fordism was routine labour and the assembly line was its iconic rep‐ resentation. In mass-production itself, enthusi‐ asm was not needed, oen not even wanted. For though ‘Henry Ford had a burning enthusi‐ asm for the motor car,’ when it came to his fac‐ tories, he retorted, ‘Why do I get a human be‐ ing when all I want is a pair of hands.’ [130] En‐ thusiasm, in his mind, was reserved for the powerful few, such as inventors and leaders like himself, situated at the core of the mass-pro‐ duced economy.[131] Ford’s types of ideas persist today and undocu‐ mented labourers are oen dehumanized as just a ‘pair of hands’. Number three of the Manifesto demands change, that ‘the human experience and the intellectual capacity that migrants bring with them’ are not only just as valuable as the work they provide but also, the body of knowl‐ edge and experience that they bring enlarges society rather than detracts from it. Bruguera’s enthusiasm, acting in the interest of migrant labourers, is not a form of tokenistic help. is manifesto is her ‘Emersonian call’. Yes, it is a demand for civil liberties to exist for more than the few, but more than that it reminds society of the inestimable gain to everyone when diversity has seats at the table. ‘Dignity has no nationality,’ and neither does enthusiasm.
Einfühlung e German word for empathy, ‘Einfühlung’, literally translates as the ability to ‘feel one’s way inside’ something and the environments Bruguera creates provoke responses on this emotional level. Bruguera wishes not only to perform certain power relationships for her au‐ dience/viewer, but also to place them in a situa‐
tion by which they may participate in the im‐ minent expressions of certain power constructs. [132] In 2012, I attended Bruguera’s perfor‐ mance Surplus Value at the Tanks, Tate Modern Gallery in London. e piece operated on sev‐ eral levels. First, the audience was required to line up outside the particular gallery entrance prior to gaining admittance. ose in line were asked random questions about who they were or where they were from, without explanation. Some were pulled out of the queue and made to wait in chairs lined up against the wall parallel to the rest of us. Guards interrogated individu‐ als in a public way, “why are you here?” Others were required to pass a polygraph test that was administered in plain view at the front of the line before the door to the gallery. If they re‐ fused, they were publicly turned away from the exhibition. Still others were sent to the back of the line if the guard did not like their answers and many who were standing in the middle or the end of the line, when they named their country of origin, were invited to enter the gallery without any further delay. ere was an atmosphere of fear and intention‐ al unpredictability created by these actions that rattled me. Despite the clearly artificial con‐ struction (the guards, though dressed in black, did work for the Tate), participants who I inter‐ viewed also reported feeling intimidated and shaken during this process. Eventually I entered the gallery and saw what Bruguera refers to as the passive phase: the dirt, equipment, and ma‐ terials of an industrial workshop were littered across the floor. At the back of the dark room an illegal immigrant worker from Romania was welding or sanding (with no apparent purpose) a replica of the sign that reads “Arbeit macht frei”. e original had been placed over the en‐ trance gate to the Auschwitz concentration camp and was stolen in 2009. It was later found cut into three pieces and discarded. is is Einfühlung. By re-creating the fear and denigration that immigrants experience, Bruguera enabled those attending to literally ‘feel inside’ the lives of those who actually face these conditions. Empathy is a vital component of enthusiasm engaged in civil liberty and the ability to evoke that same empathy in others is one of this performance’s strengths. By creating a small dose of fear and anxiety in the partici‐ pants (aer all this was the safe environment of a gallery, the real fear is felt at the border) she made art that acts like an inoculation. For ex‐ ample, though it is impossible for me to read their minds, I imagine that for some, the unpre‐ dictable time spent in line led to personal anal‐ ysis (“Why am I afraid, I have no reason to be afraid?”) which then created empathy (“People actually experience this in reality.”), which could then, potentially, immunize them from xenophobic fears of immigrants, of foreigners. Still others in line just became impatient and walked away, many of them appearing frustrat‐ ed. eir civil liberty gave them that choice. David Herd has suggested that Alan Badiou is a type of Emersonian enthusiast in the way that the rights of migrants are one of his primary concerns. ‘…Badiou developed a model of philosophical inquiry that implicitly set out to make the condition of the migrant, excessive and wandering, central to modern thought… More specifically, the discourse of enthusiasm speaks to Badiou’s repudiation of bureaucracy, where bureaucracy, whether of church or state, constitutes a block of circulation.’[133] I will re‐ turn to the topic of circulation in a moment. As a modern enthusiast, Badiou places a de‐ mand on society: ‘Assume that all workers labouring here belong here, and must be treated on a basis of equality, and respected accordingly – indeed honoured – especially workers of for‐ eign origin.’[134] is raises a valid question.
Enthusiasm!
Fig. 12. Arkansas Democratic Gazette, 2006, cartoon, © John Deering, Creators Syndicate. What is required of the enthusiasm that would be a friend to civil liberty? For Badiou honour for workers, especially those of foreign origin, is central. is is the case for Bruguera as well. Number six of the Migrant Manifesto asserts, ‘…it is inevitable that the poor treatment of mi‐ grants today will be our dishonour tomorrow.’ If Bruguera’s enthusiasm is to be a friend of (im)migrant workers’ civil liberty, honour is one of the ‘proofs’ of that friendship. e begin‐ ning of this same section of the manifesto states, ‘We acknowledge that individual people with inalienable rights are the true barometer of civilization. We identify with the victories of the abolition of slavery, the civil rights move‐ ment, the advancement of women’s rights, and the rising achievements of the LGBTQ commu‐ nity. It is our urgent responsibility and our his‐ torical duty to make the rights of migrants the next triumph in the quest for human dignity…’ ere are sacrifices required of the enthusiast that would be a friend of civil liberty and it is honour for the inalienable rights of all people that causes Bruguera to make these sacrifices. In addition, for participatory artists like Bruguera to be taken seriously, their enthusi‐ asm must demonstrate what Emerson borrows from Plato’s seventh Epistle, 'e artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give’. He continues, ‘What is a man good for without en‐ thusiasm? And what is enthusiasm but this dar‐ ing of ruin for its object?’[135] ere is some‐ thing about this daring of ruin that legitimates a political artist’s sincerity. For Bruguera, one of these sacrifices is financial. She funded Cátedra Arte de Conducta almost entirely herself, lives with immigrants as one of them and does not gain financially from IMI, living solely on a minimum wage income like her neighbours. [136] Enthusiasm in this vein understands labour as something intrinsically ‘for’ others. e reward for this activity then, is not financial but affective. (As I will discuss later, the reward for enthusiasm is enthusiasm.) Credibility takes time. When Kathy Noble, curator of the Tanks interviewed Bruguera for frieze she probed her motivations: KN: You still come from a vastly privileged economic and social position, which affects the choices and actions you are able to make. TB: Yes, but just because one is in the art world doesn’t mean that one has access to that privileged economy. is work does not ap‐ peal to collectors as there is barely anything to exhibit. My type of art needs patrons and phi‐ lanthropists that do not want to acquire ob‐ jects but instead want to contribute towards a different society. e only privilege I think I have has nothing to do with money or social position but with knowledge.[137] What is the value of this knowledge to enthusi‐ asm? For example, why would the use of Bruguera’s funds, given to the project, be con‐ sidered a form of enthusiasm? American writer and former Harvard University Fellow Lewis Hyde, in talking about the intersection between religious and literary enthusiasm in the terms of
9
‘the gi and gi exchange’, describes enthusi‐ asm as a ‘mode of knowledge other than cash exchange according to which values are not dis‐ placed or distorted (by the symbols affecting the exchange) but passed on.’[138] In other words, the enthusiasm that motivates Bruguera toward her work with immigrants and the en‐ thusiasm with which she conducts this work, is in fact an alternative currency to money. Ac‐ cording to Hyde, one might say, it is a currency better suited to the work of a civil liberties en‐ thusiast in that it imparts its values and beliefs in an undistorted manner. Hyde goes on to ex‐ plain that the two currencies are in fact not just different but incompatible, explaining that ‘cash exchange is to gi exchange what reason is to enthusiasm’, one negating the other as water would dampen or extinguish a fire. In this con‐ text it bears noting that Bruguera has not asked for money for IMI, for the services it provides or for herself. ere is a difference between ask‐ ing for money and asking for civil liberty. ough enthusiasm’s censors attempt to dis‐ mantle it through pessimism and on occasion scorn, a true friend of civil liberty persists. is is one of enthusiasm’s great qualities: its ability to ignore its critics. When Bruguera moved to Queens to set up IMI, as I have said, initially her enthusiasm was greeted with cynicism. e New York Times first wrote, ‘e project has sceptics. Some see her as an artistic carpet-bag‐ ger: before moving to Queens, she had never visited the borough except for her own shows at MOMA PS1. Others say that her plans for so‐ cial change naïve, and that her unusual living arrangement can be dismissed as a stunt.’[139] Her persistence eventually won over her critics. e New York Times follow-up article a year lat‐ er wrote, ‘When Ms. Bruguera first set up the project in Corona in 2011, with financing from Creative Time and the Queens Museum of Art, sceptics assumed that it was an artist's ego trip and that she wouldn't stay. A year and a half lat‐ er, and with most of the money gone, the work is still in progress, and Ms. Bruguera is still there, living over the storefront.’[140] When Žižek gave the speech at Occupy Wall Street, he said, ‘Don't fall in love with your‐ selves, with the nice time we are having here. Carnivals come cheap - the true test of their worth is what remains the day aer, how our normal daily life will be changed. Fall in love with hard and patient work - we are the begin‐ ning, not the end…ere is a long road ahead, and soon we will have to address the truly diffi‐ cult questions - questions not about what we do not want, but about what we DO want.’ Art’s power of influence when it ‘does what it wants’ is not lost on those who disagree with its intentions. In the summer of 2011, several con‐ servative US governors attempted to reverse or overturn labour rights that had been gained in the twentieth century, in particular collective bargaining rights. In the state of Maine however, the attack was taken to a new level when conservative Governor Paul LePage or‐ dered the removal of a thirty-six foot mural from the exterior wall of a Labour Department building because it depicted twentieth century social achievements such as the abolition of child labour and equal pay for men and women workers.[141] Yet enthusiasm will not accept these developments. Enthusiasm shows solidar‐ ity because it understands that when some lose civil liberty, all lose civil liberty. Enthusiasm gives the gis of honour, sacrifice and time as a rebuttal. Enthusiasm lays down its life for its ‘friend.’
Enthusiasm and Political Art today Žižek: You are never escaping fear. In societies where everything is managed technocratically, the only way to mobilize people is on the basis of fear. e fear of taboos, of pollution, of out‐ siders…In the West, we have no longer the ca‐ pacity to produce a positive vision. Everything is predicated on the technocratic management and mobilisation of fear. And Le and Right are united on this. You have rightist fears – immi‐ grants, homosexuals, etc; you can have leist fears – ecological devastation…’ Sengupta: So what is enthusiasm? Žižek: We know that it is not fear. In a BadiouKantian sense, it is a commitment to an idea. e idea, in my understanding, is a Communist idea. For example, in politics, you cannot have enthusiasm for your nation. It has a universal dimension. You can have enthusiasm for equali‐ ty, justice, for something greater than the par‐ ticular. To overcome fear, fear of failure, of defeat, of the impossibility of what an artist believes to be imperative, requires what Kant referred to as e nt hu s i a s m’s a b i l i t y t o u n b r i d l e t h e imagination.[142] In considering enthusiasm’s future in regard to the work of William Blake, Stephen Goldsmith writes, ‘In modern critical practice, I want to suggest…Enthusiasm serves to persuade us that there is a future outside or beyond our dissatisfying modernity that “im‐ possible history” is not only possible but actual, emerging now in the affective experience of reading it.’[143] And, I would argue, the event of performing it. Enthusiasm enables artists, amongst others, to imagine what is possible. On May 1, 2009, from the back of a packed lecture hall in Chica‐ go, Tania Bruguera called out, "I'm a political artist, so I decided that I was going to give my space to people I admire as political people". She focused the attention of approximately two hundred audience members away from herself and onto Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who today are a distinguished professor in edu‐ cation and the director of a centre for juvenile justice, correspondingly. is was one of the lectures organized by Our Literal Speed as part of an experimental art history conference that took place only months aer President Barack Obama’s acquaintance with Ayers and Dohrn had led to scandal in the elections due to their past as radical leist activists. In his speech, Ayers told of two of his most poignant memories of Chicago’s Grant Park. e first was the day when the police beat him up there. is was during the Days of Rage sur‐ rounding the 1968 Democratic Convention. e second day was when he stood in Grant Park again, forty years later, with nearly a mil‐ lion other observers and listened to America’s first black president accept his victory. Could Ayers have imagined that second day? Enthusiasm enables a person to imagine a fu‐ ture that has never happened. Enthusiasm could be called ‘a fool’s hope’. And this is proba‐ bly, in part, why it receives the criticism that it is naïve, because enthusiasm believes that things can change. I imagine that when Ayers stood in Grant Park and thought about the changes that had taken place in those forty years he might have thought to himself that none of this would have happened without countless people like him, over a sustained pe‐ riod of time, persisting in the work of inspiring others. Nothing changes without enthusiasm.
In that lecture hall in Chicago, Ayers and Dohrn conveyed a message, which is founda‐ tional to this essay: artists have an opportunity a political part to play - in liberating people "out of that controlling frame that limits the horizon of our imaginations."[144] While in prison the Burmese artist, not having any tools other than his enthusiasm, imagined that he could use his body to make art and so became a performance artist. Sojourner Truth imagined a day when she would no longer be a slave and her people would have rights. She sang her way into the awakening of her audi‐ ence’s imagination. Bruguera imagines a world where the ‘Migrant Manifesto’ will have changed people’s minds and will permanently exist in the imagination of politics. Enthusiasm enables the imagination of the participatory artist to be unbridled again and again and again. Enthusiasm however, must be free from bu‐ reaucracy to be a true friend of civil liberty. Claire Bishop in her book, Artificial Hells: Par‐ ticipatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship argues that, ‘the task today is to produce a vi‐ able international alignment of leist political movements and a reassertion of art’s inventive forms of negation as valuable in their own right.’[145] Bishop’s objective would ‘show the inadequacy of a positivist, sociological ap‐ proach to participatory art,’ which Bruguera echoes stating in her ‘Political Art Statement’ that, ‘Art can also be used with political purpos‐ es, but that is not political art, it is art-propa‐ ganda.’[146] 'Political Art has doubts, not cer‐ tainties; it has intentions, not programs; it shares with those who find it not imposes on them; it is defined while it is done; it is an expe‐ rience not an image; it is entering the field of emotions and that is more complex than a unit of thought.'[147] Bishop is primarily arguing for disruption. Par‐ ticipatory art has an unusual ability to cause this disruption when it is not in the service of politics but when it exists in its own right. ‘… Political conversion is not the primary goal of art…artistic representations continue to have a potency that can be harnessed to disruptive ends…’[148] For example, Bishop concludes that participatory art in the way that it uses people as a medium has a ‘double ontological
e artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give. What is a man good for without enthusiasm? And what is enthusiasm but this daring of ruin for its object? Ralph Waldo Emerson status: it is both an event in the world, and also at a remove from it.’[149] Because of this, it has a unique ability to ‘communicate…to partici‐ pants and to spectators - the paradoxes that are repressed in everyday discourse, and to elicit perverse, disturbing, and pleasurable experi‐ ences that enlarge our capacity to imagine the
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Enthusiasm!
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can. John Wesley world and our relations anew.’[150] e same can be said for enthusiasm. Enthusiasm can be perverse. Please love Aus‐ tria (2000) was a participatory performance by German artist Christoph Schlingensief that cri‐ tiqued the electoral successes of the far-right party (FPÖ) and its leader Jörg Haider in Aus‐ tria. Invited to contribute to the Wiener Fest‐ wochen (Vienna Festival Week), Schlingensief chose to provide commentary on the xenopho‐ bic and racist rhetoric, reminiscent of Nazi slo‐ gans, that the FPÖ had used during its success‐ ful campaign. He did so by assembling a con‐ tainer camp outside the Opera House in Vienna, a very prominent location, and topped it with a banner saying Ausländer Raus! (For‐ eigners Out!). Inside the container Schlingen‐ sief housed ten immigrants whose every move was televised via a website. e immigrants competed for a spot in a game similar to Big Brother on British television. One was voted off by audience members every day while Schlin‐ gensief was enthusiastically commenting over a loudspeaker, engaging a mixed audience of passers-by with controversial, provocative state‐ ments and commentary. At times this elicited strong emotional responses from the audience. Please Love Austria was perverse within an Austrian-German cultural context in which right-wing positions, rhetoric and symbolism that are in any way akin to the Nazi era are ille‐
Fig. 13. 'We are here!', Salt Lake Tribune, Au‐ gust 2010, cartoon, © Pat Bagley. gal. Schlingensief by using enthusiasm as satire, in a sense ‘over-doing it’, attempted to ‘undo’ what the right-wing party was doing. Enthusiasm can be disturbing. e last perfor‐ mance in Bruguera’s Untitled series, Untitled (Bogota, 2009) took place during the confer‐ ence of the Hemispheric Institute of Perfor‐ mance and Politics, August 21-30, 2009, and was the most controversial of the series. In front of a large audience, both inside and out‐ side the auditorium of the Facultad des Bellas Artes at the Universidad Nacional, the perfor‐ mance started with three actors: one represent‐ ing a right-wing paramilitary combatant, one representing a le-wing guerrilla and the third representing a refugee. All three struggled to speak simultaneously over each other into a mi‐ crophone. e fact that it was incomprehensible was overshadowed by the arrival of an assistant who made their way through the audience car‐ rying a tray filled with lines of cocaine. It was assumed that the cocaine was not real until one audience member tried it and declared that not only was it authentic but high quality. At this point many in her audience le in protest, some stayed for the cocaine while debates over the le‐ gality of her performance broke out and the po‐ lice were called. Bruguera took the microphone
to thank her audience for coming and during the discussion that ensued defended the perfor‐ mance stating that she was working with “con‐ cepts of provocation and controversy”.[151] e student who reported on the event for El Tiem‐ po commented that perhaps it was an accurate reflection on Colombia where ‘some people kill each other for drugs, while others consume drugs, others are indifferent, and others make fun.’ [152] Enthusiasm is willing to cross the line of transgression, to focus its intention, es‐ pecially if the point is to cause chaos. In this performance some people were enthusiastic in their rejection of its deviance. Some were en‐ thusiastic about the cocaine. Bruguera was en‐ thusiastic about the disruption. When enthusi‐ asm is disturbing it can bypass prescriptive or didactic thinking. In this way enthusiasm acts as art and not propaganda. Enthusiasm can be pleasurable. Sunflower Seeds was an installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at the Tate Modern Gallery in London. Filling up the vast space of the empty turbine hall with 100 million handmade, hand painted porcelain sunflower seeds, this work spoke to Weiwei’s passion for the millions of anonymous workers who are behind the stamp MADE IN CHINA. Ai Weiwei provided the audience with a tangible interaction with the critique of the modern phenomenon of Chinese mass produc‐ tion. Each porcelain sunflower seed was hand‐ made by one of one thousand six hundred arti‐ sans in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen, which had traditionally been a centre of porcelain manufacture, formerly one of China’s chief ex‐ ports. In the first days of the exhibition viewers of all ages enjoyed crunching over porcelain seeds and playing with them, oen attempting to take them home. Pleasure turned to displea‐ sure however when the Tate ordered it closed on October 14, 2010 due to Health and Safety’s concerns over the dust. With the extra media attention, Sunflower Seeds came under enthusi‐ asm’s power of contagion and many more peo‐ ple wanted to attend. e exhibition reopened several days later but visitors were no longer permitted to walk on the seeds and had to ob‐ serve from a distance. At the time a Tate spokeswoman stated that "Although porcelain is very robust, the enthusiastic interaction of visitors has resulted in a greater than expected level of dust in the Turbine Hall."[153] Enthusiasm’s critics might argue that these works are only symbolic and are therefore lack‐ ing efficacy. is accusation could be levelled at Women on Waves, a small non-profit activist/ art group founded in 2001 by Rebecca Gom‐ perts, which provides abortion services to women in countries where access to these ser‐ vices is illegal. Using a boat that has been outfit‐ ted with a medical container that holds a fully functioning abortion clinic, Women on Waves will typically anchor in international waters and since the boat holding the container is regis‐ tered in the Netherlands, the organization is thereby able to legally provide abortion services. Nato omson relays an enthusiastic account from a documentary on the project: As the ship sails into Valencia harbour, conser‐ vatives dispatch ships bearing banners reading “no” and drumming thunders from the antichoice protestors leaning on the gates of the port. e dock is mobbed with supporters and
aggressive press. As the ship attempts to tie up, a dissenting harbour patrol ship lodges itself between the Women on Waves ship and the dock, securing their lines to the ship and at‐ tempting to drag the ship back to sea, while the activists frantically try to untie the line. e au‐ thorities seem to be winning the tug of war, when Rebecca, clearly enjoying the moment, emerges from the hole wielding a large knife. e crowd onshore thunderously stomps and cheers as she slices the patrol’s rope in half, freeing her ship, bows to the crowd, and tosses the Women on Waves lines to the eager support‐ ers. As the harbour patrol’s motorboat circles, baffled and impotent, hundreds of hands pull the ship into dock.”[154] To some, this may appear to be a great story but in reality it is fiction. Women on Waves has per‐ formed very few abortions since its inception, in fact the boat is mainly used as ‘a media de‐ vice’. Both the image of Gomperts cutting the rope or (to use perhaps a more authentic exam‐ ple, discussed previously) the images of the thirty-nine individuals who were given the op‐ portunity to speak publicly in front of a micro‐ phone for a total of one minute each regarding their opinions of the Cuban government in the performance Freedom of Speech/Tatlin’s Whisper #6 (Havana Version, 2009), could seem like gestures rather than practical approaches. Per‐ haps they are merely the superficial acts of artists seeking to further their careers similar to the NY Times accusation of Bruguera when she arrived in Queens to begin IMI. However ‘sym‐ bolic gestures can be powerful and effective methods for change.’ To ompson, the key fac‐ tor is time. ‘us, the strategic turn (is) where we find works that are explicitly local, longterm and community-based… As publics be‐ come increasingly aware of the hit-and-run style of not only artists, but other industries of spectacle – such as advertising, film, and televi‐ sion- they develop a suspicion of those “helping them”. As with many long-term efforts, the longer the project, the more the artist or artists must behave like organizational structures in order to operate efficiently and combat fatigue and overextension.’[155] is collaborative na‐ ture of enthusiasm, the way that it is main‐ tained by operating as a group such as Cátedra Arte de Conducta makes enthusiasm useful to participatory art as it enables the momentum to begin and to continue. Rather than a one-off event, enthusiasm sustains the initiation of many such ‘disruptive’ events creating a move‐ ment that affects public attitudes. Enthusiasm is not sentiment. Enthusiasm makes demands. It insists on power. Enthusi‐ asm breaks established rules and is a threat to establishments. Bruguera writes, ‘My work deals with the concept of political representa‐ tion and its relationship with direct access to es‐ tablished structures of power. I'm interested in appropriating the resources of power to create power, to create through art political situations.’[156] Enthusiasm, like Ezra Pound, is potent in its ability to influence and tireless in its willingness to assist. Enthusiasm tries things out and is unashamed. Enthusiasm believes in the pur‐ pose of its pursuit and this belief is a set of ‘troths’ that it holds to.[157] It can be that en‐ thusiasm loves. It loves new ideas. It loves man‐ ifestos. And in that it loves to perform. It loves to sing. It loves to teach. It loves to write. It ad‐ heres to the slogan ‘love never fails’. Enthusiasm really believes that it can change the world. And sometimes it does. Enthusiasm changes your mind one performance at a time. As Žižek says, we live under ‘a thin spread of fear on the surface of our lives’, fear of getting old, fear of not having enough, fear of people taking what we do have, fear of others who are
different from us – we are entrenched in fear. One of the things that is fascinating and inspir‐ ing about enthusiasm in its multi-faceted forms (and there are so many that this essay does not have the scope to consider) is its disruptive ability to break calcified systems of thought in the way that Ai Weiwei’s seeds were broken un‐ der enthusiastic feet.[158] It does this through
enthusiast: n. One who is full of ‘enthusiasm’ for a cause or principle, or who enters with enthusiasm into a pursuit. Sometimes with unfavourable notion: A visionary, self-deluded person. OED the imagination which is why the concept of its unbridling is profound. Art disrupts. It inter‐ rupts and opens us up to new ways of thinking. It gives us brief and longer-term moments through which we can experience the world in an entirely different way. While I stood in line waiting to be admitted to Surplus Value (2012) and people in front of me were pulled out of the queue, when guards were demanding that they take polygraph tests and others were allowed to enter ahead of me, my heart was pounding in my chest. For one moment - for a brief hour or so, I was able to experience what countless mi‐ grant workers experience on a daily basis… and it changed my mind. Enthusiasm confronts us in a dogged way. Much to its historic detractors’ frustration, you cannot out-think it because it has an entirely different operating system. It bypasses reason’s ability to debate or dismiss. Enthusiasm can be self-critical when that criticism is useful to itself but it defies logic. Or perhaps it is better to say it has its own. inking of Badiou, enthusiasm is a servant of honour but it is also a leader. It is a friend who will make you feel deeply uncom‐ fortable. In fact the reaction against enthusiasm (whether it be political, personal or otherwise) oen arises not only because enthusiasm ex‐ pects us to alter but, harder still, enthusiasm in‐ sists that we raise our hopes. It demands that we change our minds. It makes demands of us even as it makes demands of itself. At the be‐ ginning of this essay I discussed caricatures of enthusiasm, which I now argue are not enthusi‐ asm at all. ey water down and minimise a word that has great political valence in history as well as today. Enthusiasm is extreme. Enthu‐ siasm doesn’t tire. Just as enthusiasm is located in the body, so enthusiasm is located in people’s regard for other’s bodies. In the participatory art of Tania Bruguera, enthusiasm roars that people matter, all people. Like she commands, “Nobody has the right to take away someone else’s dream.”[159] Enthusiasm is useful to participatory art, in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Im‐ manuel Kant before him, because nothing great was ever achieved without it. Nothing new. Nothing that lasts. is is enthusiasm’s mighty boon to art, ‘It has the power to break the continuum of history.’[160]
Enthusiasm!
Notes: [1] Clapper, Michael. “omas Kinkade’s Ro‐ mantic Landscape.” American Art 20.2 (2006): 76–99. Print. [2] Pincus, Robert L. “‘Heaven on Earth’ for Kinkade Fans.” 16 May 2004. Web. Also: Judkis, Maura. “omas Kinkade’s Polarizing Legacy: How Wi l l t h e ‘ Pai nt e r of L i g ht’ B e Remembered?” 7 April 2012. Web. Also: “About omas Kinkade - Biography.” 2013. Web. [3] “Enthusiasm.” e Oxford English Dictio‐ nary Online. Web. [4] “Craze.” e Oxford English Dictionary On‐ line. Web. [5] ibid [6] Byron, Baron George Gordon Noel. Don Juan (1818-1824). e Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 6. London: Privately Published, 1806. Print. Canto XIII, Stanza 35.
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glewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969. Also: Lovejoy, David. Religious Enthusiasm in the New World: Heresy to Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985. Taylor, Isaac. Natural History of Enthusiasm. London: Holdsworth and Ball, 1829. [18] Toscano, A. Fanaticism: e Uses of an Idea. London: Verso Books, 2010. Print. 118. [19] ough there are nuances to these terms, in this essay I use the terms social practice, po‐ litical art, and participatory practice inter‐ changeably because the distinctions are not of relevance to this argument. ese terms, which have different cogence and agency to theorists and artists: for example, Suzanne Lacy, Claire Bishop and Tania Bruguera, could all be argued to employ enthusiasm. [20] Noble, Kathy. “Useful Art: An Interview with Tania Bruguera.” frieze Feb. 2012. [21] Hume, David. Essays, Morals, Political and Literary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966. Print. 76.
[7] Ehrenreich, Barbara. Bait and Switch: e Futile Pursuit of the Corporate Dream. London: Granta, 2006. Print. Also: Bachmann, Goetz, and Andreas Wittel. “Enthusiasm as Affective Labour: On the Productivity of Enthusiasm in the Media Industry.” M/C Journal 12.2 (2009). Print.
[22] Bass, Nichole, and Mailyn Machado. “Bi‐ ography of Tania Bruguera.” Web.
[8] Pustola, Magda. “Reclaiming Enthusiasm.” Enthusiasm, Films of Love, Longing and Labour = Entusiasmo, Películas De Amor, Deseo y Tra‐ bajo = Enthusiasmus, Filme Über Liebe, Sehn‐ sucht Und Arbeit. London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 2005. Print. 1.
[24] Plato, tr. B. Jowett. e Dialogues of Plato. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953. Print.
[9] Sune, William. Charm, Enthusiasm and Originality - eir Acquisition and Use. Mered‐ ith, NH: Elan Publishing Company, 1929. Print. [10] Herd, David. Enthusiast! Essays on Modern American Literature. Ann Arbor, MI: e Uni‐ versity of Michigan Press, 2007. Print. [11] Emerson, Ralph Waldo Essays and Lec‐ tures: Nature; Addresses, and Lectures/Essays: First and Second Series/Representative Men/En‐ glish Traits/e Conduct of Life. New York City: Library of America, 1983. Print. 7. See David Herd Enthusiast! for a comprehensive discus‐ sion of Emerson’s enthusiasm and its influence on modern American poetry. [12] Emerson, Ralph Waldo IX. Essays. Circles. Essays and English Traits. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1841. Print. [13] Herd, David. Enthusiast! To emphasize his point by creating a foil, the father of American literature quipped ‘For the English no enthusi‐ asm is permitted except at the opera … they re‐ quire a tone of voice that excites no attention in the room.’ [14] Lenin, Vladimir. Lenin’s Collected Works. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1972. Print. 76, 77.
[23] Clark, Timothy. e eory of Inspiration: Composition as a Crisis of Subjectivity in Ro‐ mantic and Post-Romantic Writing. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001. Print. 71.
Toscano argues that enthusiasts could both ‘drive processes of secularization, or reinstate the transcendent authority of religion.’ [39] Clark, Timothy. e eory of Inspiration. 65. See Clark’s discussion of rational enthusi‐ asm in regard to Voltaire. Enthusiasm would eventually be considered reasonable. . [40] A rhapsode was a professional performer of Ancient Greek poetry. [41] Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. New York: Cosimo Classics, 2007. Print. 77. [42] Fannig, Stephen. Mystics of the Christian Tradition. London: Routledge, 2001. Print. 179.Also: Fox, George., William. Penn, and M. A. F. Fox. A Journal: Or Historical Account of the Life, Travels, Sufferings, Christian Experi‐ ences, and Labour of Love in the Work of the Ministry, of at Ancient, Eminent, and Faithful Servant of Jesus Christ, George Fox. Printed for B. and T. Kite, Fry and Kammerer, printers. Fox, George., and William. Penn. e Journal of George Fox. Ed. omas Ellwood. London: omas Northcott, 1694. [43] Lawrence of the Resurrection OCD, Brother. e Practice of the Presence of God. Ed. Conrad De Meester OCD. Trans. Salvatore Sci‐ urba OCD. Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1994. Print. 89. [44] Cooper, Earl of Shasbury, Anthony Ash‐ ley. An Inquiry Concerning Virtue and Merit. e Moralists; A Philosophical Rhapsody. Lon‐ don: John Darby, 1732. Print. 400.
[25] Herd, David. Enthusiast! 4. [45] Herd, David. Enthusiast! 39. [26] Clark, Timothy. e eory of Inspiration. 50, 51.
[46] Critchley, Simon. “A Kind of Faith.” frieze Dec. 2010. Web.
[27] ibid. 63. [28] ibid. [29] Toscano, Alberto. Fanaticism. 118. [30] See discussions in Mee, Jon. Dangerous Enthusiasm: William Blake and the Culture of Radicalism in the 1790s. Broadbridge: Claren‐ don Press, 1992. Also: Mee, Jon. Romanticism, Enthusiasm, and Regulation: Poetics and the Policing of Culture in the Romantic Period. Ox‐ ford: Oxford University Press, 2005. [31] Clark, Timothy. e eory of Inspiration. 63.
[47] “Enthusiast.” e Oxford English Dictio‐ nary Online. Web. [48] oreau, Henry David. Early Essays and Miscellany. Ed. Joseph Modenhauer, Edwin Mower, & Alexandra Kern. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975. Print. 17.
and socially profitable. “If time is created when one overcomes the immediacy of rage reaction and learns to project the ultimate decisive mo‐ ment of its realization into the future, rage be‐ comes the momentum and the raw material of historical change.” [58] Bruguera, Tania. “Oct. 23 Speech, Boston.” Oct. 2011. Web. [59] Clark, Timothy. e eory of Inspiration. 3. [60] In reference to the American dream, I am speaking of both the fictional dream - that ev‐ eryone who works hard enough will realize it as well as the real or historical ‘dream’ of those im‐ migrants who came to America and were suc‐ cessful. [61] Goldberg, Roselee. “‘Interview II,’ Tania Bruguera.” La Bienale Di Venezia. Ed. Prince Claus. Chicago, Il.: Lowitz and Son, 2005. 11– 21. Print. Bruguera stated, “It was very disturb‐ ing, traumatizing. I stopped making work for quite a long time aer that. I felt I had compro‐ mised and at the same time I was worried about how one continues to make work under such circumstances. Submission as a way of surviv‐ ing. “Do I bend toward their demands, or do I do my own work?” [62] ibid [63] For a discussion on the nature of courage versus fear see: Scarre, Geoffrey. On Courage. London: Routledge, 2010. [64] Rush, Elizabeth. “Taking Place: Perfor‐ mance Art in Burma.” frieze. Sept. 2012. Web. [65] Yadanar, Untitled, 2011. Performance at the Nippon Performance Festival, New Zero Art Space, Rangoon. [66] Rush, Elizabeth. “Taking Place.” [67] Cooper, Earl of Shasbury, Anthony Ash‐ ley, and Lawrence. E Klein. Shaesbury: Char‐ acteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Print. 54.
[49] Critchley, Simon. “A Kind of Faith.” [68] David Herd, Enthusiast! 7. [50] Hengehold, Laura. e Body Problematic: Political Imagination in Kant and Foucault. Philadelphia: Penn State Press, 2010. Print.
[69] Benson, Heidi. “HOWL / When Allen Ginsberg Hurled His Shattering Poem at a San Francisco Audience in 1955, It Proved to Be the D ept h C harge at St ar ted t he B e at Movement.” San Francisco Chronicle 4 Oct. 2005. Print..
[32] ibid
[51] Bruguera, Tania. “Freelance Police Officer.” 2010. Web. Also: Bruguera, Tania. “Political Art Statement.” 2010. Web.
[33] Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding: In Four Books. 11th ed. London: A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, 1735.
[52] Noble, Kathy. “Useful Art - an Interview with Tania Bruguera.” Frieze Magazine Feb. 2012. Web.
[34] ibid.
[53] Hengehold, Laura. e Body Problematic. 31. Also: DiCenso, J. Kant, Religion, and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
[71] Ventrella, Francesco. “Enthusiasm.” Paral‐ lax 17.2 (2011): 1–7. Print. 4.
[54] Clark, Timothy. e eory of Inspiration. 41.
[72] Posner, Helaine, Tania Bruguera, and Car‐ rie Lambert-Beatty. Tania Bruguera: On the Po‐ litical Imaginary. Milan, Italy: Charta, 2009. Print.
[35] Forster, Greg. John Locke’s Politics of Moral Consensus. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Uni‐ versity Press, 2005. Print. 124. Locke has re‐ ferred to enthusiasts as pursuing ‘that which laying by reason would set up revelation with‐ out it.’
[70] ibid. For further discussion of enthusiasm in poetry see: Day, Jean. Enthusiasm: Odes & Otium. Brookline, MA: Adventures In Poetry/ Zephyr Press, 2006.
[55] ibid, 3. [15] “Earnestness” e Oxford English Dictio‐ nary Online. Web. [16] Heyd, Michael. Be Sober and Reasonable: e Critique of Enthusiasm in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries. Leiden, New York and Cologne: E.J. Brill, 1995. Print. 4, 5. [17] Tucker, S. I. Enthusiasm: A Study in Se‐ mantic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer‐ sity Press, 1972. Also: Lovejoy, David. S. Reli‐ gious Enthusiasm and the Great Awakening. En‐
[36] Toscano, Alberto. Fanaticism. 117, 118.; Heyd, Michael. Be sober and reasonable. 5. I owe this discussion of Heyd to Toscano. [37] Klein, Lawrence. E, and Anthony. J LaVopa. Enthusiasm and Enlightenment in Eu‐ rope, 1650-1850. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1998. Print. 2. Also: Cragwall, Jasper. “e Shelley’s Enthusiasm.” Huntingdon Library Quarterly 68.4 (2005): 631–653. Print. [38] Toscano, Alberto. Fanaticism. 119.
[56] ibid, [57] Pavlov, Evgeni V. “Banking on Rage: Slo‐ terdijk’s ymotic Counterrevolution.” Parallax 17.2 (2011): 126–130. Print. Enthusiasm. Pavlov, considering Sloterdijk, thinks of rage as a type of enthusiasm and as capital. He de‐ scribes Sloterdijk’s theory of rage as capital for justice, and economy of rage in which rage is stored in a rage bank, accrues interest, and is later capitalised in projects it deems politically
[73] Guenther, W. Stephen. e Limits of Love “Divine”: e eological Development of Early Wesleyan Methodism in Response to Antinomi‐ anism and Enthusiasm. Nashville, TN: Kingswood, Abbingdon, 1989. Print. 15, 16. [74] Bruguera, Tania. “Tatlin’s Whisper #6 (Ha‐ vana Version) Freedom of Speech.” 2009. Web. [75] Sanchez, Yoani. “Translation of Govern‐ ment Response to ‘Performance’.” 29 Mar. 2009. Web.
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[76] A photo of the Aurora Magazine article is found here: http://www.sojournertruth.org/ _Photos/012.htm [77] Pullon Fitch, Suzanne, and Roseann M. Mandziuk. Sojourner Truth As Orator: Wit, Sto‐ ry, and Song. Westport, CT. London: Green‐ wood Group, 1997. Print. Great American Ora‐ tors 25.
Enthusiasm!
[95] ibid 79. [96] Bruguera, Tania. “Teaching Statement.” 2006. Web. [97] Herd, David. Enthusiast! 2.
[123] Initially IMI was operated by artist Tania Bruguera, Creative Time and the Queens Mu‐ seum of Art. [124] ompson, Nato. Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011. Cambridge, MA; London: e MIT Press, 2012. Print. 121.
[98] ibid, 103. [125] ompson, Nato. Living as Form. 121. [99] Bruguera, Tania. “Teaching Statement.”
[78] Loewenberg, Bert James, and Ruth Bogin. Black Women in Nineteenth-Century American Life: eir Words, eir oughts, eir Feelings. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 1976. Print. 239. [79] Price Janney, Rebecca. Great Women in American History. Traverse City, MI: Horizon Books, 1996. Print. [80] Heartney, Eleanor. “Tania Bruguera.” Art in America. Apr. 2010. Web. [81] Noble, Kathy. “Useful Art.” [82] Herd, David. Enthusiast! 19.
[100] ibid. [101] Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participa‐ tory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. Lon‐ don. New York: Verso Books, 2012. Print. 247. [102] Bruguera, Tania. “Cátedra Arte De Con‐ ducta.” 1998. Web. [103] Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells. 250. [104] Bishop, Claire. “Havana Diary: Arte De Conducta.” Ramona 93 (2009): 21–26. Print. [105] Bruguera, Tania. “Cátedra Arte De Con‐ ducta.”
[83] Diderot, Denis. “Enthousiasme.” Encyclo‐ pédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers 1772. Print.
[106] Bishop, Claire. “Havana Diary: Arte De Conducta.” 21-26.
[84] “Enthuse.” e Oxford English Dictionary Online. Web.
[107] Bishop, Claire. “Havana Diary: Arte De Conducta.” 21-26.
[85] Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful: With an Introductory Discourse Con‐ cerning Taste, and Several Other Additions. Lon‐ don: J. J. Tourneisen, 1792. Print. 290.
[108] Bruguera, Tania. “Cátedra Arte De Con‐ ducta.” [109] ibid [110] ibid
[86] Telford, John. “e Life of John Wesley, Childhood at Epworth.” Wesley Center Online. [87] Wesley, John. Standard Sermons: Consist‐ ing of Forty-four Discourses, Published in Four Volumes in 1746, 1748, 1750 and 1760 (fourth Edition, 1787) to Which Are Added Nine Addi‐ tional Sermons, Published in Vols. I to IV of Wesley’s Collected Works, 1771. London: Ep‐ worth Press, 1961. Print. Sermon 37: e Na‐ ture of Enthusiasm. Also: Wesley, John. e Works of the Late Reverend John Wesley, A.M.: From the Latest London Edition with the Last Corrections of the Author, Comprehending Also Numerous Translations, Notes, and an Original Preface, Etc. Ed. John Emory. New York, NY: Waugh and Mason, 1835. [88] Wesley, John. “A Letter to William Wilber‐ force.” Feb. 1791. Web. Also: Knox, Ronald Ar‐ buthott. Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion with Special Reference to the 17th and 18th Centuries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. [89] Herd, David. Enthusiast! 19. [90] New Living Translation of the Bible. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2007. Print. Acts 2.2. [91] Shin, Sarah. “Slavoj Žižek at Occupy Wall Street: ‘We Are Not Dreamers, We Are the Awakening from a Dream Which Is Turning into a Nightmare’.” 10 Oct. 2011. Web. [92] Koehler, Ludwig. et al. “Ruach.” e He‐ brew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament 2000: 290. Print. [93] Welby, Justin. “Archbishop of Canterbury: First Address by Justin Welby.” e Telegraph 9 Nov. 2012. Print. Also: Treneman, Ann. “It’s a Miracle! Hacks Bow Heads as New Man Starts with a Prayer.” e Times 10 Nov. 2012. [94] Herd, David. Enthusiast! 164.
[111] ibid. Also see a discussion of this in Claire Bishop’s book, Artificial Hells, pages 250-260.
[126] Cotter, Holland. “Politics as Performance, an Evolving Art.” New York Times 21 June 2012. Print. Also: Noble, Kathy. “Useful Art.” Web. [127] Cotter, Holland. “Politics as Performance, an Evolving Art.” [128] Olascoaga, Sofia. “Staging Experiments in Social Configuration.” FORECLOSED Be‐ tween Crisis and Possibility. Ed. Whitney Muse‐ um of Art. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2011. 93–105. Print.
[130] Peale, Norman Vincent. Enthusiasm Makes the Difference. New York, NY: Fireside Publishing, 1967. Also: Kane, Pat. e Play Eth‐ ic: A Manifesto for a Different Way of Living. London: Pan Books, 2005. Print. 128. [131] Peale, Norman Vincent. Enthusiasm Makes the Difference. 196. [132] Donovan, om. “5 Questions (for Con‐ temporary Practice) with Tania Bruguera.” Art: 21 Blog 14 Apr. 2011. [133] Herd, David. “‘Merely Circulating’: e Movement of Persons and the Politics of Aban‐ donment.” Parallax 17.2 (2011): 21–35. Print. Enthusiasm. [134] Herd, David. “Merely Circulating.” [135] Emerson, Ralph Waldo. IX. Essays. Cir‐ cles. Essays and English Traits. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1841. Print. 414.
[145] ompson, Nato. Living as Form. 45. [146] Bruguera, Tania. “Political Art Statement.”
[148] ompson, Nato. Living as Form. 44. [149] ibid. 45. [150] ibid [151] “Tania Bruguera Cocaine Controversy.” Artnet News. 7 Sept. 2009. [152] ibid [153] “Tate Bans Public from Walking on Ai Weiwei’s Turbine Hall Installation.” London SE1 Community Website. 15 Oct. 2010. Web. Also: Brown, Mark. “Tate Modern Rethinks Sunflow‐ er Seeds Show Aer Health Fears.” e Guardian 15 Oct. 2010. Web. [154] ompson, Nato. Living as Form. 18. Be‐ fore starting Women on Waves Rebecca Gom‐ perts was an activist with Greenpeace, serving as the ship’s physician aboard the Rainbow Warrior 2, a Greenpeace activist ship. One can note similar strategies. [155] ompson, Nato. Living as Form. 45.
[114] Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells. 250-260. [115] Bruguera, Tania. “Migrant Manifesto.” Nov. 2011. Web.
[144] Posner, Helaine, Tania Bruguera, and Carrie Lambert-Beatty. Tania Bruguera: On the Political Imaginary. Milan, Italy: Charta, 2009. Print. 37-45.
[147] ibid [129] Bruguera, Tania. “Migrant Manifesto.” Nov. 2011. Web.
[112] Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells. 250-260. [113] Herd, David. Enthusiast! 5.
[143] Goldsmith, Steven. “William Blake and the Future of Enthusiasm.” Ninetheenth Century Literature 63.4 (2009): 439–460. Print. UC Berkeley professor Steven Goldsmith, in con‐ sidering the future of enthusiasm in the work of William Blake, writes, ‘ere is more to this re‐ cursive relationship between old and new en‐ thusiasm than the idea, longstanding in the rhetoric manuals, that strong emotion can leap the temporal and spatial boundaries between subjects.’
[136] Dolnick, Tom. “An Artist’s Performance: A Year as a Poor Immigrant.” NY Times 18 May 2011. Print.
[156] Bruguera, Tania. “Artist Statement.” [157] Critchley, Simon. “A Kind of Faith.”
[116] Noble, Kathy. “Useful Art.” [117] Hume, David. “Of Superstition and En‐ thusiasm (1742-1754).” Essays Moral, Political and Literary. Ed. Eugene F. Miller. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1985. Print. [118] Herd, David. Enthusiast! 9. [119] Toscano, Alberto. Fanaticism. XXII. [120] Hume, David. “Of Superstition and En‐ thusiasm (1742-1754).” [121] Hume, David. “Essay X: Of Superstition and Enthusiasm.” From Essays Moral, Political, and Literary (1742-1754), University of Pennsyl‐ vania English Literature Department. Web. Covenanter was the name given to the Scottish party that fought for Presbyterian church gov‐ erning bodies. When the Episcopacy was re-es‐ tablished in 1662 and dissenting ministers were oppressed, the Covenanters took up arms and were then crushed by the king’s army. e Lev‐ ellers ‘was the name given to a radical egalitari‐ an party in England under the Commonwealth, which opposed Cromwell’s regime on the ground that it did not truly break with the aris‐ tocracy.’ [122] Bruguera, Tania. “Oct. 23 Speech, Boston.”
[137] Noble, Kathy. “Useful Art.” Bruguera is not acting as an artist or pretending that she is someone other than she is. When she moved in she explained that she was a ‘forty-two year old woman who is unmarried, with no babies, and in love with my work as an artist. at was a big surprise to them. I do not fit their cultural mould…but for them, I am also the person who gave Maria a part-time job, confronted the landlord because we spent January and Febru‐ ary without heat and connected them with free legal advise. Did I do that as an artist? No, I did that as a person.’ [138] Hyde, Lewis. e Gi: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World. Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 1983. Print. 172. [139] Dolnick, Tom. “An Artist’s Performance: A Year as a Poor Immigrant.” NY Times 18 May 2011. Print. [140] Cotter, Holland. “Politics as Performance, an Evolving Art.” New York Times 21 June 2012. Print. [141] Green, Tyler. “e War on Labour.” Mod‐ ern Painters (2011). Print. 50 Under 50: e Young Collectors Issue. [142] Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. 77.
[158] Sengupta, Shuddhabrata. “From Anxiety to Enthusiasm - Slavoj Žižek in Conversation with Shuddhabrata Sengupta.” e Sarai Reader 08 (2010): 266–276. Print. Fear. [159] Bruguera, Tania. “Oct. 23 Speech, Boston.” [160] Lyotard, Jean-Francois. and George Van Den Abbeele. Enthusiasm: e Kantian Critique of History. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009. Also: Readings, Bill. Introducing Lyotard: Art and Politics. London: Routledge, 1991.
Christina Manning Lebek Critical Writing in Art and Design Royal College of Art, London c.manning-lebek@network.rca.ac.uk christinamanninglebek@gmail.com www.christinamanninglebek.com http://criticalwriting.rca.ac.uk/ http://show2013.rca.ac.uk/c.manning-lebek http://www.rca.ac.uk/show/c.manning-lebek