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1995
(eqqumiitsuliortunngorsinnaaneq),
tassami uaguunaananilu ikkuunngimmat,
uangaananilu illiunngimmat.
Apeqqut taana Arkemut “ileqqutigut
pissutsinut”(“æstetisk”)
tunngassuteqarsimavoq (tassa
ilutsimut atatillugu), immaqalu
taaguut (“etnoæstetik”) atorsimallugu,
“nunasiaqarsimanerup
kingunerisaanik” taaguusernagu,
taamatullu toqqammaviatigut
nassuerutigigamiuk, unammilligassaq
tamanut aallaaviummat
ataavartuullunilu. Unammisassaq
tamanna kikkunnut tamanut
atuuppoq; tassa “nunasiaajunnaarnerup”
kingunerani aatsaat
takkutinngimmat, aammali
ilaatigut suli atuutinnginnerani
pisimasut eqqarsaatigalugit pioreerami.
Pisimasuni pisuutitsiniarnerunani,
kisialli siunissamut
akisussaaffeqarnissamut atalluni.
Arke amerlanernit siulliulluni
“nunasiaateqarnerup suussusia”
paasisimavaa (aqutsisup atornerluinera)
pissutsini annerusuni
minnerusunilu “uku” “uagullu”
akornatsinni assigiinngissutsit
nassatarigaat. Akissutaavorlu
assigiinngissutit asoorunnissaat
iml. unammillertuarnissaat.
(Etnoæstetiske) Inuianni
pissutsit ingerlarngi tamani
atuuppoq, kisiannili “takornartat
pileraangata uagut pissutaasarpugut,
taamatut oqartaraagut.
Kingulleq nassuiaataasinnaavoq
sooq taama piumassuseqartigaluta
ajugaanniuttunullusooq peqataajumasarnerput.”
Lars Kiel Bertelsen
Pia Arke. Ethno-Aesthetics. 1995
Pia Arke’s Danish-language
essay Ethno-Aesthetics was
first published by the Danish
art journal ARK in 1995.
In the essay, which was
originally written as Arke’s
graduate thesis from the
Department of Art Theory at
the Royal Danish Academy
of Fine Arts, she reflected
(as one of the first to do so
in a Danish context) on the
possibilities open to art in
the field between different
cultures. Now the text appears
in a trilingual edition
and has thus become accessible
for an international
readership.
Also today Ethno-Aesthetics
is a text, which by speaking
from a position that recognises
neither the one nor the
other, challenges any notion
that it is possible to distinguish
between “them” and
“us” and instead establishes
a new “mixed” subject that
is both-and or, in Arke’s own
words, a “mongrel”. She said
the word with a twinkle in
her eye, without bitterness,
well knowing what pictures
it evoked in the listener.
For the political criticism
in Arke’s work is always
level-headed. As she writes
in Ethno-Aesthetics, the
postcolonial discussion is not
about guilt, but about relating
concretely to reality in
late-colonial culture, including
the question of how one
can become a human being
(and an artist) when one is
neither us or them, me or
you.
For Arke this question was
an “aesthetic” concern (i.e. a
matter of form), and perhaps
her choice of the concept
“ethno-aesthetics” instead
of “postcolonialism” also
contains an existential recognition
that this challenge
is fundamental and permanent.
It is a challenge that
all people are faced with; a
challenge which therefore
does not just come “after
colonialism”, but in a certain
sense before it. It is not a
matter of past guilt, but of
future responsibility. Earlier
than most Arke had understood
that in both great
things and small things “colonialism”
(the mastery over
and exploitation of one party
by another) is a consequence
of the aesthetic distinctions
that are set up between
“them” and “us”. And the
answer was to abandon or
in any case to continually
challenge this distinction.
The ethno-aesthetic game is
a fundamental condition, but
“the alien element that is
at play is ourselves, we say.
And this can, if nothing else,
explain why we throw ourselves
with such energy into
the game”, as Arke herself
put it.
Lars Kiel Bertelsen
37