MANIFESTO OF/IN THE AFTER
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MANIFESTO OF/IN THE AFTER • First Interview with Rebis • Second Interview with Rebis • Foreword and Programme • Excursus • Towards the After
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FIRST INTERVIEW WITH REBIS
What is art, who is an artist? In the present time and context Contemporary Art is what the artist wants to express; the artist is the person who expresses himself through art. Before we used to say art was the expression of Beauty. I’d like to understand that better.... I can historicise the concept by talking about a Before and an After. Let me explain in more detail: Art had an identity crisis, on the one hand with the advent of Kantian philosophy, which denied the possibility of metaphysical values and thus even of Beauty, and on the other with the arrival of technology (photography and movies). The Age of Enlightenment destroyed the Before. And with less doctrine what are you saying...... ...that the advent of photography made the use of art as a means of representing reality and nature psychologically pointless, but also that the impossibility of absolute truth made the search for Beauty inaccessible. In theory, the artist – now – uses art to show himself to the world and no longer to show himself the world. Just a minute. Let’s try to keep to the historical and concrete facts.... Historically the first aspects to be affected were technique and light. Look at the Impressionists and the Fauves. The changes all poured in 5
like an avalanche coming down a mountain. And the Olympus where the Values reside is very high up. But are you saying that art has become detached from Beauty, and is no longer art? OH NO! I’ve never said nor meant that. Art is still Art even without Beauty. I just want to acknowledge something that happened. And then... What happened then is there for all to see: an avalanche, growing bigger and gathering speed, setting the pace for new research: Suprematism, Futurism, Dadaism and even Cubism. But the problem isn’t about proposing new ideas: Pop Art or Trans-avant-garde, Arte Povera or Land Art. Art is like the donkey Cattelan hung from the ceiling which, if you think about it, was really the artist hanging himself. I’m afraid you’ve lost me again.... The artist doesn’t solve his problem by searching for the answers: colour, technique, light, style, eventually abandoning his works in favour of a performance. ....The astonishment inherent in art isn’t enough: no-one standing near the artist’s shit by Manzoni or the shark at the Saatchi Gallery (it is no longer the art or the artist that are interesting, 2but the person promoting it...) or watching videos by many performers or looking at Kawara’s postcards experience the same emotions when looking at a work from the Before.
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So?!... As Contemporary Art has lost its anchorage to the Metaphysical and Reality, it proposes itself as Religion and Church; indeed... it has become the polytheist area of the many Churches. Today every artist is a priest. This issue is felt so strongly that many contemporary artists place their essence simply in the Hallmark. By that I mean they simply focus on putting all their energy into gaining recognition for their work. The recognition of an artist’s work ought to be the effect of its being, not a prearranged project, but then... what else can you expect of a person trying to find his way across stormy seas with no points of reference. And if the layman can see fat people and recognise Botero, then that makes his life simpler... What do you suggest? A novelty? NO. A new Hallmark? NO. Creating the element of surprise? NO. New techniques and proposals? NO. A reflection? Maybe, or a consideration. We have often wondered, for instance, why, before setting to work on a blank canvas, Caravaggio or Rubens never tried to go beyond its bidimensionality... perhaps by making a hole in it with a knife! Of course, photography hadn’t been invented then... or movies... But it is also hard for us to accept that Leonardo da Vinci, an artist and foreseeing scientist, never, and I repeat, never, dreamt that the artist’s shit could be left to future generations...
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So do you think we ought to go back to the Before? That would be impossible. What then? We must finally accept the fact that we’re now in the After. That way we can stop using stupid, hypocritical terms like: interesting, strange, fascinating, but we can’t say Beautiful any more.
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SECOND INTERVIEW WITH REBIS Why did you feel the need for the Manifesto of/ in the After? We see Contemporary Art struggling against insurmountable difficulties, like a stranded whale, lying helpless after running aground. We see situations in which artists must show shrewdness, not skill. We see huge numbers of artists caught like sardines in a net. We see the world of Contemporary Art as a tunny-fishing net in which the fish are killed‌ We can’t stand all this. Can you tell us something about your relationship with the world of artists? I love art. I respect the artists. How do you plan to put the Manifesto programme into practice? By painting. Who can subscribe to the Manifesto? Any artist who wishes to do so. How do you subscribe to the Manifesto? By signing it. On the website or when we meet. Could anyone be excluded from the Manifesto, do you think? No.
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How would you define your painting? I paint. Do you really think the Contemporary Art experience is over? Don’t you think so?! What can we expect now? The After.
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FOREWORD AND PROGRAMME FIRST STATEMENT Our aim is to reaffirm to the entire artists’ community that ways out involving attempts to open up new doors in the house of art cannot be accepted as satisfactory, as these have already used up all the spaces. So? We no longer want to pretend we are looking for a new proposal or promising young artists: THE NOVELTY, which can no longer be found anyway. We want to try to retrace the original sources of art and our first crucial step in that direction will be to make it known that we are perfectly aware of the motivations, - good faith as well as trickery; we want to follow the current again, not necessarily to go back, but to convey the knowledge that we are all, every one of us, in the After, even if for some this will not be welcome. We shall try to meet in the spaces of art and - where possible - in person, all the artists who have strived to communicate by presenting a NOVELTY. Painting fat people, stacking objects and wrapping up monuments all create the conditions for identification, but these conditions are not enough. Using modern technology, videos and computers, using stage settings and calling them installations, however partial or complex; turning a stage setting into a performance neither adds nor 11
takes away anything. All these people should be reminded of the artist who set up the installation of the envelope with the bottle of poison and attempted a performance by asking everyone to read the letter, but only after swallowing the contents of the bottle: no-one listened to him, nor do they listen now‌ SECOND STATEMENT The Now and the Here and the After. We now know that everything is repeated, even institutionalised in art exhibitions: each year special spaces are reserved for new galleries, new artists, emerging artists soon to be replaced by the selfcelebrating NOVELTY. This is a global but repetitive circus. Where do we turn, now that this awareness is well-entrenched? The first step will be to work in the Here and Now to communicate through each work and each action that the time for these activities, studies and novelties is over. It has been used up and we have become aware of the fact. We are at last, without pretence, in the After.
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THIRD STATEMENT Each time we see how Art, struggling to escape insignificance, turns to NOVELTY. All this introduces an atmosphere that is unreal, an absolute caesura between the artist, the public and operators in the sector: we want to communicate that all those mentioned up to now know this. Unlike many operators, who find satisfaction in this, and many artists who adapt and succumb to it, we are troubled by it.
What is the solution?
We are not suggesting a new way out, but want to acknowledge the fact that these expectations concerning Art do not constitute attention to Art, but attention to the New. And the forms in which this is happening have all been considered and used before: from the colour to the methods and materials, there are no new possibilities. Every field and technique has been explored, recombined and exhausted. It is no longer the artists who emerge and offer themselves to the world, even with the support of gallery-owners and critics, but major Contemporary Art Fairs and Financial Foundations that extract as many ladles as they want from the homogenous soup of novelties, to fill their spaces and according to their resources at the time of choosing.
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FOURTH STATEMENT This situation is not limited to Italy, France, Germany, London, Europe, Russia or America, and even China is affected. Other places we have not mentioned are not excluded either (such as Japan or South America). Art is aware and global without market demand. Perhaps the internet, the place that cancels space and time, has been responsible for acceleration and standardisation: in any case, the gaze of Art on the world has no national, physical or biological colour. The basic need of Art to drink from its unexhausted source is global and no artist is shut out from or a stranger to the problem.
FIFTH STATEMENT All artists who agree with us may subscribe to this manifesto and live in the After.
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EXCURSUS Action painting (pittura d'azione) Aeropittura Ambulanti Anacronismo Art DĂŠco Arte astratta Arte barocca contemporanea Arte classica Arte contemporanea Arte concettuale Arte moderna Arte naĂŻf Art nouveau Arte povera Avanguardia Bambocciate Barrocchismo Barocco Body art Caravaggismo Carolingio Classicismo Cobra Color field painting (pittura a campi di colore) Cubismo Dadaismo De Stijl Divisionismo Enfatismo o Enfartismo Espressionismo Espressionismo astratto Eventualismo 15
Fauves o Fauvismo Futurismo Gotico Gutai Idropittura Impressionismo Informale Iperrealismo Land Art Liberty Linearismo Mac Macchiaioli Manierismo Metafisica Minimalismo o Minimal Art Neoclassicismo Neosurrealismo Nuova oggettività Orfismo (o Cubismo orfico) Pop art Post-impressionismo Raggismo Realismo Realismo esistenziale (pittura) Rectoversion Rococò Romanticismo Simbolismo Suprematismo Surrealismo Transavanguardia Writing
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Estratto da “http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittura” Da Wikipedia, l’enciclopedia libera 2006. Tutti i testi sono disponibili nel rispetto dei termini della GNU Free Documentation License. Politica sulla privacy Informazioni su Wikipedia Avvertenze Integrazione in elenco: Puntinismo Formalismo Astrattismo Concettualismo Spazialismo Scenografia 1 (Installazione) Scenografia 2 (Performance)
Elenco voci da babelearte.net Accademismo Acqua Acquaforte Acquatinta Acquerello Acromatismo Action Painting Aerografo Aeropittura Affresco American Scene Paintings Anacronismo Anamorfosi 17
Anonimi Anti-Form Arabesco Araldica Art and Language Art Brut Art DĂŠco Art Nouveau Arte Africana Arte Animalista Arte Cinetica Arte Concettuale Arte Cubista Arte Dadaista Arte Decorativa Arte Gotica Arte Impegnata Arte Informale Arte Naif Arte Non-Oggettiva Arte Nucleare Arte Popolare Arte Povera Arte Spaziale Arte Ufficiale Arti Grafiche Artista ed Artigiano Arts and Crafts Ashcan School Assonometria Astrattismo Astrazione Geometrica Autografia Automatismo Autoritratto Avanguardie 18
Azionismo - Wiener AktionismusBad Painting Bande Noire Barocco Bateau-Lavoir Batik Bauhaus Bestiario Bianca Biedermeier Blaue Reiter (Il cavaliere azzurro) Body Art Camden Town Group Caricatura Chiarismo Cobra Collage Composizione Corrente Costruttivismo Cracking Art Craquelure Cubismo Dadaismo Decadentismo Dipinto Divisionismo Elementarismo Espressionismo Espressionismo Astratto Fauvisme Fluxus Fronte nuovo Funk Art Futurismo Gotico Internazionale 19
Graffitismo Gruppo 58 Gruppo degli Ambulanti Gruppo degli Otto Gutaj Hague school Happening I Dieci Iconografia Immaginismo Impressionismo Incisione Intimismo Iperrealismo Jeune peinture belge Kakemono Kitchen sink school Land Art Liberty Lumismo Macchiaioli Magico Primario Mail Art (o Arte Postale) Manierismo Massurrealismo Metafisica Miniatura Minimalismo Monhoa Mosaico Movimento Arte Concreta (MAC) Muralismo Nabis Natura Morta Naturalismo Nazareni 20
Neoclassicismo Neoespressionismo Neoimpressionismo Neoplasticismo Neoromanticismo Novecento Optical art Orfismo Phases Pittura a secco Pittura ad Olio Pittura murale Pittura segnica Pop art Post Modern Poussinisti Preraffaeliti Primitivismo Primordialismo Plastico Purismo Quadratura Quadriga Quadro Realismo Cubista Realismo Magico Realismo Sociale Regionalismo Rinascimento Rococò Romanisti Romanticismo Rubenisti Salon des Indépendants Salon des Refusés Scuola di Barbizon Scuola di Fontainebleau 21
Scuola di Norwich Scuola di Parigi Scuola di Posillipo Scuola di Resina Scuola Romana Sei di Torino Sezession Simbolismo Sintetismo Spazialismo Suprematismo Surrealismo Tenebristi Transavanguardia Umanesimo Valori Plastici Verismo Vorticismo Washington color painters Xilografia Zero
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TOWARDS THE AFTER‌ (Narrated by Rebis)
One morning I woke up with an unpleasant feeling: photography had just been invented. After centuries of portraits for Royal Families, Authorities and the Upper Classes, I felt useless. However hard I tried, even offering my art free of charge, photography had beaten me with its accuracy and wealth of detail. But the feeling was short-lived. Once I got over the initial impact, I realised I had a whole world to offer: the universe filtered through my eyes. And people liked this novelty. The Artist had to have something to say: in Contemporary Art this became the Project. It was like the revolution of Kantian apperception in the field of philosophy, with the Artist as the centre rather than the repeater. One after the other, almost without realising it, throughout the day I put forward my most convincing thoughts bringing them to life in my works and offering them to the world. I realised I could play with the light on my canvas, use special dotted techniques, offer experiences filtered by my sensitivity. I can’t really give an unequivocal explanation though, nor is it particularly important: whether it was in response to a request by the public, or to my own personal 23
need to renew myself, or something I was forced to do to keep attracting people’s attention, which is lost so quickly, but step by step I started to offer novelties. I was not trying to use Art to rise to the Absolute, to the Number One, but by trying to embrace it and embrace myself, and relying exclusively upon myself, as the day wore on I started to explore and offer the various elements that gradually emerged: Astonishment or the Sublime, Symmetry or the Golden Section, Technique or Colour. Everything could be presented as Absolute, Centre or Number One; all I had to do was decide. That was my responsibility. No longer bound by limits in terms of technique or media, I started using photography, explaining that it was painting, and I moved a stone on the Earth, imagining it as Land Art; no-one answered me. Critics have often preceded and stimulated me, at other times they have analysed and reported on my activities. Observers have simply looked on. Now at the end of the day I ask myself: ‌ and then tomorrow?
WEBSITE: www.rebis.info EMAIL: rebis@rebis.info PRINTED BY: COPIES: COPY NO. OF SIGNATURE:
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