The National Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme

Looking is political

Ane Hjort Guttu, 2010

Revised project description

Introduction

The term "political art", as used in everyday speech, indirectly puts forward a division
between political and non-political art. "Political art" is associated with messages
about current political conflicts or cases. This fortifies the notion of politics as a
separate, special field, above and beyond common human life experience. It narrows
the idea of the political, and thereby, of possibilities of social change.

In my fellowship project Looking is political, I intend to problematize the general

notion of political art, and to create artistic works with a more complex understanding
of the interplay between politics, aesthetic experience and daily life.

An important movement within modernity has been the constant challenging and
eradication of boundaries and categories, with the aim of moving towards a society of
equality or escaping a limited concept of art. Artists have contributed to this impulse
through the continual attempt to connect their work to life outside the art institution.
This has been simultaneously an aesthetic and a political struggle. There are
particularly two areas I want to look into:

- Why and how have artists incessantly explored the border of the art institution, or
tried so hard to escape it? Is it possible to work critically within this strategy without
necessarily abandoning traditional media or production? Where does the
emancipatory project of modernity stand today?

- In what way has the breaking of barriers taken place throughout modernity? I am
interested in finding concrete historical and contemporary examples that can highlight
some artistic strategies, and give a more complex understanding of political art.

Through these studies, I hope to gain a broader overview of art´s multifaceted

relations to the political, with the goal of creating precise and consequent political art
works.
Theme

How to Become a Non-Artist, 2007.

In my video work How to Become a Non-Artist (2007) I documented the form

experiments of my 4-year-old son; how he begins with fairly original placements of
objects in a space (our apartment), and how these objects gradually become more
and more subtle until they can be seen as readymades and eventually not even that,
but only as the "world itself". The video consists of stills and a voiceover, ending:

(…) And, as we went down this road towards a disbandment of the

universal idea of good and bad form, this new attitude towards things
infected the surroundings. As if I was inside a zone where all things
could be the result of a higher formal awareness: The roads, the
chewing gum on the side walk, the yellow light over the city on our
way home from kindergarden. Or it could not be, it didn`t matter any
more. Everything became art, and in the same moment; nothing.1

1
Ane Hjort Guttu: How to Become a Non-Artist, 2007
How to Become a Non-Artist describes a search for "real life" through, and
simultaneously out of, the art work. At the same time, the work describes an
investigation of this border itself:

The ring was in a way sealed. We had moved from sculptures to

readymades, to functional objects, and none of us had noticed any
difference, any breaks or borders.2

Modernity is filled with parallel exemples of works and texts by artists wanting to
break out of what they experience as an inadequate or commercialized concept of
art. For these artists, the art institution represents a problem, both because it is
experienced from the outside as elitist and isolated, and on account of its dubious
connections to authorities, that is, bourgeois institutions and capital. Kazimir Malevich
writes in 1919:

It appears to me that, for the critics and the public, the painting of
Raphael, Rubens, Rembrandt, etc., has become nothing more than
a conglomeration of countless "things", which conceal its true value:
The feeling which gave rise to it. The virtuosity of the objective
representation is the only thing admired. If it was possible to extract
from the works of the great masters the feeling expressed in them,
that is, the actual artistic value, (...) the public, along with the critics
and the art scholars, would never even miss it.3

Malevich´s longing for the "true" within art took him to a qualitatively new level
whose motivations were at the same time aesthetic and political. Throughout the
history of the avantgarde, the artistic struggle for a truer or more independent art
has coincided with the political liberation struggles, and the boundaries between the
aesthetical, personal and political have been blurred and at times non-existing. The
French philosopher Jaques Ranciere describes this motive power in The Politics of
Aesthetics:

For abstract painting to appear, it is first necessary that the subject

matter of painting be considered a matter of indifference. This began
with the idea that painting a cook with her kitchen utensils was as

2
Ane Hjort Guttu: How to Become a Non-Artist, 2007
3
Kazimir Malevich: The Non-Objective World, Dover Publications, London 2003
 noble as painting a general on a battlefield. (…) The equality of
subject matter and the indifference regarding modes of expression is
prior to the possibilitity of abandoning all subject matter for
abstraction. 4

Ranciere points to the destruction of hierarchies as a condition for, and result of,
Western modernity, or what he prefers to call the aesthetic regime of art. Ranciere
links this mechanism to the development of modern democracy: Aesthetic equality
mirrors the equality that was struggled for in society.

Historically, an important political and artistic strategy has been to approach the
"world outside" by introducing parts of it to the art institution. This has created a wide
and plastic artistic field. Another of my earlier projects, Smalvollen from 2004, is
making use of this strategy, and thereby exploring the space between art and non-
art. The work took place in the gallery Kunstnerforbundet and in the Smalvollen
area, a small river landscape in Groruddalen, surrounded by industry. In the gallery,
I showed two non-figurative sculptures, claiming to be free, abstract interpretations
of the atmosphere or character of Smalvollen. Parallelly, I arranged a tour through
the area, where we followed the walking path and had a picnic.

Smalvollen, 2007

Smalvollen employs two possible artistic styles: Traditional sculpture pretending to

express something´s essence or nature through "pure form", and an escape out in the
suburban reality, where nothing went on but a river walk. The combination of these
two artistic strategies is an aesthetic statement in the sense that they constitute two
extreme points on an abstraction scale. But at the same time, they somehow cross

4
Jaques Ranciere: The Politics of Aesthetics, Continuum 2004/2006, London
each other out, leaving the idea that the "true Smalvollen", the distinctive quality of a
place or phenomenon, rests somewhere beyond all representation strategies, and is
perhaps most clearly expressed in the gap between them.

In Karl Marx´s theory of alienation from 1844, he describes how man is estranged
through industrial labour: The worker is deprived of the ownership to the means of
production and loses contact with the meaning of his work, with the people who are
to use the products and with his own humanity. The artists, on their side, have
transferred this theory to the aesthetic field: The aesthetic activity, so essential for
every human being, is reduced to a closed circuit; a knowledge reserved only for the
few. Joseph Beuys writes in 1973:

Only on condition of a radical widening of definitions will it be

possible for art and activities related to art (to) provide evidence that
art is now the only evolutionary-revolutionary power. Only art is
capable of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile social
system that continues to totter along the deathline: to dismantle in
order to build a social organism as a work of art (...) Every human
being is an artist who – from his state of freedom, the position of
freedom that he experiences at first-hand – learns to determine the
other positions of the total art work of the future social order.5

Beuys actually picks up the thread from Friedrich Schiller 200 years earlier,
emphasizing the aesthetic experience as a revolutionary power. It is capable of
reestablishing contact between the human beings’ thoughts and dreams, and her life
conditions, and it can function as a model for other forms of political emancipation.

The destruction of the boundary between art and society, between the artists and
other people, has for many artists appeared to be the most crucial, or the only way
to work politically. This destruction has taken place as well in the distribution
systems of art as through its form or subject matter. Walter Benjamin comments in
his essay The Author as Producer:

5
I am searching for field character 1973, Energy Plan for the Western man - Joseph Beuys
in America, red. Carin Kuoni, Four Walls Eight Windows, New York, 1993
 Our duty would thus be to transform the concert form in a way which
must fulfil two conditions: it must supersede both the opposition
between the musicians and the listeners, and that between technical
performance and content.6

Here Benjamin sketches up two strategies: Changing the relationship between artist
and audience, and between art´s content and its mediation. Benjamin is strongly
convinced that an art that ”passes on the apparatus of production without
transforming it” is incapable of being critical or revolutionary. The character of the
distribution and use of the art is an essential aspect of its political power.

Through Looking is political, I want to take a closer look at how artists have worked
with the border between art and life, or tried to break out of the art institution. This
will involve historical studies of how art has allied with revolutionary movements. I
am interested in the formal strategies that have been developed, as well as new
forms of presentation and distribution and new artist and spectator roles. It will not
be possible to look at this in any complete way, but I plan to focus on particular
works and events. I will also study selected political theory and look briefly into the
discussion on the possibility of an avantgarde position today.

The goal of Looking is political is to explore new forms of testing and challenging the
boundary between art and what´s outside art, and how this can emphasize the
aesthetic experience as a revolutionary or emancipatory power. The practical part of
the project will consist of new artistic works. This does not necessarily mean the
undertaking of an instrumental/empirical testing of political-aesthetical strategies; the
purpose can also be to investigate different questions through traditional art works
inside the art institution. However, I see a great challenge in going into more binding
political considerations. This might also change the way I relate to the art institution
and the work of art.

6
Walter Benjamin: The author as producer, New Left Review #62, 1970
Artistic activity

The final concrete form of my artistic activity must necessarily develop according to
the experiences gained through my investigation. It is important for me to stress this
point, because it is crucial that this sort of open research also has an open output,
finding its shape as a consequence of the process.

The intended results at the present moment can be described as follows:

• Series of lectures
I intend to draw up a series of artistic lectures, presented at KHIO or other
institutions. I imagine them to be a mixture of performance and monologues, and
they can contain images as well as sound, film etc. The lectures will be
documented, and they can, if relevant, be shown or re-staged as part of the final
presentation.

• Publication
I will publish a book containing my own independent texts, edited parts of the
lectures and image works. The book is to be published in the last phase of the
project, preferably in connection with the final project. Possibly it could work as
an extended catalogue which can also contain f.ex. images presented in the
exhibition.

• Exhibition/final project
The final exhibition will consist of photographic, sculptural and/or textual works.
It is to be presented as a conclusive presentation of the fellowship project. It may
also contain documentation, for example of the lectures or other actions.
Theory

My fellowship project necessarily demands a deeper understanding of certain

aspects of political philosophy and art history. I therefore wish to reserve a
substancial part of the first one and a half year for theoretical studies. These will be
structured within two main areas:

Political theory

This includes definitions of politics, the constitution of the political field and in what
way the human being acts as a political subject. One place to start is Hannah
Arendts The Human Condition (1958) and Jürgen Habermas´ The Structural
Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962). Furthermore, I wish to look at some
critical approaches to Arendt, particularly her division between the social and the
political, and the critique of Habermas´ theories of consensus-based democracy, for
instance Chantal Mouffe og Ernesto Laclaus Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. It will
also be natural to go into Giorgio Agambens most influential work, Homo Sacer:
Sovereign Power and Bare Life, as a follow-up of Arendt.

Another focus point within political theory is the concept of alienation. The starting
point for this is The Essence of Christianity by Ludwig Feuerbach and Karl Marx´s
Paris manuscripts of 1844. Furthermore Herbert Marcuse: Eros and Civilisation, Guy
Debords The Society of the Spectacle and Louis Althusser´s critique of Marx´s
alienation theory. I am also strongly influenced by Jaques Rancieres The Politics of
Aesthetics and The Aesthetic Revolution and its Outcomes. A foundation for this is
Friedrich Schiller´s The Aesthetic Education of Man. Ranciere also provides
substantial critique of Hannah Arendt.

Art history

The second study area are particular situations or examples from art history, starting
from William Morris´ Arts and Craft-movement, through the historical avantgarde,
French situationism, Latin-American conceptual art etc. It will be particularly
interesting to go deeper into contemporary strategies, activist initiatives like Chto
delat? and Group Material, as well as singular artists.
Finally, I want to study some pedagogical experimental projects, both within art
education (Non-Ecole de Villefranche initiated by Robert Filliou and George Brecht,
Proto Academy etc) and children´s education.
Supervisors

Primary supervisor: Anne Katrine Dolven, professor at KHIO, dep. Art Academy
Secondary supervisor: Pablo Lafuente, Researcher, Central Saint Martins College of
Art and Design, University of the Arts London
Ane Hjort Guttu: Tentative reading list, Looking is political

This reading list may seem extensive and should be regarded as a working
document. It is also constantly revised. There is not yet enough research done on the
art historian part of the theoretical studies and relevant litterature will be added.

Adams, W. 1991. ‘Aesthetics: Liberating the Senses'. In T. Carver, ed., The

Cambridge Companion to Marx. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Adorno, Theodor W.: Estetisk teori

Agamben, Giorgio: Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life

Agamben, Giorgio: We Refugees. (On Hannah Arendt´s We Refugees)

Althusser, Louis: For Marx, 1969

Arendt, Hannah: Vita Activa. Pax forlag, Oslo, 1996

Arendt, Hannah: We Refugees.

Benjamin, Walter: Theories of German Faschism. On the Collection of Essays War

and Warrior, Edited by Ernst Jünger, New German Critique, 1979.

Benjamin, Walter: Kunstverket i reproduksjonsalderen. From Kunstverket i

reproduksjonsalderen og andre essays.

Benjamin, Walter: Forfatteren som produsent. From Kunstverket i

reproduksjonsalderen og andre essays.

Benjamin, Walter: Forsøk på en kritikk av volden. Vagant, 2009.

Benjamin, Walter: Det episke teater. From Kunstverket i reproduksjonsalderen og

andre essays.

Benjamin, Walter: Historiefilosofiske teser. From Kunstverket i reproduksjonsalderen

og andre essays.

Boal, Augusto: Invisible Theatre. From Esche, Charles and Bradley, Will: Art and
social change, a critical reader, Tate Publishing in association with Afterall, London
2009.

Brecht, Bertolt: The Days of the Commune. Eyre Methuen, London 1978.

Brecht, Bertolt: Texts on Art and Politics

Chtcheglov, Ivan: Formulary for a new urbanism

Ehrlich, Victor: Russian Formalism

Esche, Charles and Bradley, Will: Art and social change, a critical reader

Debord, Guy: Report on the Construction of Situations

Debord, Guy: The Society of the Spectacle

Debord, Guy: On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Unit of Time

Decter, Joshua: Art in Its Cultural Contradictions, Afterall Magazine, autumn/winter

2009

Deleuze, Gilles: What is Philosophy?

Depth of Field, Frieze Magazine. Christopher Bedford in discussion with artists

Walead Beshty, Liz Deschenes and Eileen Quinlan

Duchamp, Marcel: Apropos of readymades, from The Essential Writings of Marcel

Duchamp, Thames and Hudson, London 1975

Elster, Jon: Kap. 3: Fremmedgjøring. From Hva er igjen av Marx,

Universitetsforlaget, Oslo 1988.

Feuerbach, Ludwig: The Essence of Christianity

Fraser, Andrea: Official welcome. From Museum Highlights. Collected Writings of

Andrea Fraser

Freire, Paulo: De undertryktes pedagogikk, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo 1999

Freire, Paulo: Education for Critical Consciousness, Continuum 2010

Funcke, Bettina: Displaced struggles: Bettina Funcke on Ranciere and the art world.
ArtForum, march 2007.

Gouldner, Alvin W: Alienation from Hegel to Marx. From The Two Marxisms,

Grieg, Nordahl: Nederlaget, theatre play.

Groys, Boris: Art Power

Habermas, Jürgen: The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

Hannula, Mika m. fl: Artistic Research: Theories, Methods and Practices

Haacke, Hans: Letter, April 1968. From Esche, Charles and Bradley, Will: Art and
Social Change, a Critical Reader, Tate Publishing in association with Afterall, London
2009.

Heier, Marianne: Tre måneders arbeid, tale til utstillingen Jamais Toujours,
Stenersenmuseet 2010.

Hiller, Susan: The Provisional Texture of Reality. Selected Talks and Texts, 1977-
2007. (div. tekster i denne)

Holmes, Brian: Hieroglyphs of the Future: Jacques Rancière and the Aesthetics of
Quality, Springerin nr.?
Key, Ellen: Barnets århundre

Leavitt, Thomas: Earth. From Robert Smithson, The Collected Writings. University of
California Press, 1996.

Lesage, Dieter: Portrait of the Artist as a Researcher

Letter To A Teacher. By the School of Barbiana. Penguin Education 1970.

Lippard, Lucy: Notes from a recent arrival, Situation, MIT Press 2009, edited by
Claire Doherty 1995.

Lucy Lippard: Escape attempts. Reconsidering the Object of Art: 1965-1975, MOCA
1995, s. 28.

Lukács, George: History and Class Consciousness

Maharaj, Sarat: Xeno-epistemics: Makeshift Kit for Visual Art as Knowledge

Production

Maharaj, Sarat: Know-how and no-how: Stopgap notes on “method” in visual art as
knowledge production. http://www.artandresearch.org.uk/v2n2/maharaj.html.

Marchart, Oliver: Art, Space and the Public Sphere(s)

Marcuse, Herbert: Eros og civilisationen, part II. Gyldendals forlag, Copenhagen,

1970

Martin, James: Post-Foundational Political Thought: Political Difference in Nancy,

Lefort, Badiou and Laclau by Oliver Marchart (book review)

Marx, Karl: The fetishism of commodities and the secret thereof. From Capital, part I

Marx, Karl: Det fremmedgjorte arbeid. Karl Marx: Verker i utvalg I, Pax forlag 1970

Marx, Karl: Ti teser om Feuerbach

Mitchell, W. J. T.: Picture Theory

More, Thomas: Utopia

Mouffe, Chantal: Artistic activism and agonistic politics.

www.artandresearch.org.uk/v1n2/mouffe.html

Mouffe, Chantal og Laclau, Ernesto: Hegemony and Socialist Strategy

Noble, Richard: Some Provisional Remarks on Art and Politics

Ortega y Gasset, José: Kunsten bort fra det menneskelige

Ortega y Gasset, José: Man and People

Ranciere, Jaques: Short Journey to the Land of the People

Ranciere: The Aesthetic Revolution and its Outcomes

Ranciere, Jaques: The Ignorant Schoolmaster

Ranciere, Jaques: The Politics of Aesthetics

Ranciere, Jaques: Are some things unrepresentable, from The Future of the Image,
2007.

Ranciere, Jaques: Who is the subject of the Rights of Man?

Rogoff, Irit: Academy as Potentiality. A.C.A.D.E.M.Y.

Rogoff: Irit: Free. E-flux Journal 2010.

Schiller, Friedrich: Om menneskets estetiske oppdragelse i en rekke brev. Solum

forlag, Oslo 1991

Schiller, Friedrich: Die Künstler

Smithson, Robert: A tour of the monuments of passaic, New Jersey. From Robert
Smithson, The Collected Writings. University of California Press, 1996.

Smithson, Robert: Entropy and the new monuments. From Robert Smithson, The
Collected Writings. University of California Press, 1996.

Steyerl, Hito: The subalterns´ present. http://translate.eipcp.net/strands/03/steyerl-

strands02en#redir

Steyerl, Hito: A Thing Like You And Me. From catalogue, Henie-Onstad Art Centre,
2010.

Shklovsky, Victor B.: Art as Technique

The Hornsey Affair. Students and staff at Hornsey College of the Arts, Penguin
books, 1974

Vatter, Miguel: Review of Todd May: The political thought of Jacques Ranciere.
ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=15405