#manifestomonday
(e-flux
journal # 21 – 12/2010)
NOTICES OF DISCHARGE, A MANIFESTO.
Preface
(I): The State of the Contemporary
“The
term 'contemporary art' is marked by an excessive usefulness. The
contemporary has exceeded the specificity of the present to become
inextricably linked to the growth of doubt consolidation. […]
It does not describe a practice but a general 'being in the
context'.” (Gillick)
This
being is marked by, so Gillick,
a
“complicit
alongsideness”, i.e. the
evasion of “fundamental ideas” and “key political questions”
by “irony and coy relations to notions of quality”
an
all-encompassing “inclusiveness”
that “has helped suppress a critique of what art is and more
importantly what comes next” (“authoritarian tolerance”)
a
mode of production, of “[m]aking
things with an awareness of all other things”, which is
specifically linked to notions of a networking
urban-ness,
a chattiness
which
manifests itself in simultaneously answering “questions about [the
artwork] itself and all other contemporary art” (all the time in
every artwork)
WIP,
i.e. a mode of production in which the “attempt to work is the
work itself”, [u]nresolved is the better way, leaving a series of
props that appear to work together”
the
dominance of self-referentiality
through the merging of “politics and biography”, subjectivity
and work, i.e. a “coming-into-being through work”
Preface
(II): The Post-Contemporary
“Not working at all is very hard to
do. So the answer is to keep working ...” (Gillick), and look into
“a
boycott of the subjective”
“the
aggressive option of neo-objectivity”
the
separation of “life and action from contemporary art”.
NOTICES
OF DISCHARGE
I'm
discharging myself from the contemporary. I will account for what is taking place.
I'm
discharging myself from therapy. I'm giving up on the past. I won't
retract the probing needle from my head. I will stop pulling at it.
self-medication Nowheretown/Germany
I'm
discharging myself from the biographical. I will refrain from
further exorcisms.
biographical exorcism
I'm
discharging myself from Germany. I have no talent for it. I will
stop trying to look through Schlingensief's eyes.
Schlingensief Nowheretown/Germany remnants
I'm
discharging myself from the idiosyncratic. I will stop trying to
convince you of its good intentions. I will not boycott the
subjective. The next time you see me, I will wear a wig.
I'm
discharging myself from the asylum. I have no talent for functioning
madness. I will give sanity another try. I'll be the sanest person
waiting for the bus in LA.
(in)sanity
I'm
discharging myself from rephrasing the fundamental questions. They
have been answered in non-fundamental terms. I will not answer them in fundamental terms. I will stop talking about not answering them.
I'm
discharging myself from clarity. It is a
shell and a knife. I have no talent for it. I will try to forget where the self-destruct buttons are. I will let them
be pushed by accident again. I'm
putting down the knife. The next time you see me, we'll shake hands.
bubble
wrap concrete
I'm
discharging myself from daring you with the unresolved. I will not
stop producing props. I will finish the plays I stage. I will account for what is taking place.
Banksy told you not to.
