23.May
2002
Actual art
Art becomes religion, religion becomes commodity
[Marta Jung]
On
May 25 at the Art-Frankfurt the Russian artist Julia Kissina will begin
her action entitled "Awake": just like missionaries, artists
will be selling "Wachturm" (Watch Tower), the propaganda magazine
of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Kissina's idea is that such periodicals
sold by fictive missionaries from the art world will be no less irrefutable,
than the truth messages distributed by the genuine Jehovah's Witnesses.
Kissina explains her statement: in the world overcrowded with global
messages each community announces its worldwide universal truth. Advertisement
resembles the duty of a religious missionary. To this extent, an art
activity is also related to such mission and spreads into foreign territories.
On the Art-Frankfurt, a venue, where art forms itself professionally,
sanctity becomes commodity. However, these commodities are radical and,
like the „Wachturm", irrefutable.
Similarly, at the Art-Frankfurt the fictive missionaries will be selling
irrefutable messages. The agents will hold the "Wachturm"
brochure in their hands, offering it to the prospective customers interested
in arts, as a kind of an art action. Of course, Kissina is not trying
to say they can really compete with "real" works of art, but
they do perform in good society though.
Other texts:
The New York artist Sal Randolph buys
place in the Manifesta 4
An open call for artists to take part in the Free Manifesta
