The Misfits.pdf - Muzej suvremene umjetnosti Zagreb

(geometric abstractions, late abstract expressionism 1968), they are lonely individuals and actors of
etc.). Thus, on the margin of a social structure tend- the movement, but as exiles from the society;
ing towards totalitarian system and culture asking also as possible stars of the spectacle in the
for ontological support for the lineage of identity, a empire of 'traces' (provided personal power to
paradigm of the borderline form of cultural identi- enter the vicious 'hermeneutical circle' of
fication grew. actually confirming the universal authority in a spectacular manner is exhibited,
transformation of contemporary art and culture. as was with late Braco Dimitrijevi).
The bearer of the new paradigm is the changed The conceptualist subject, as a hypothetical
model of the subject of art, not just sociological, theoretical subject of art, works in a critical
subjective or formal-media context; but the model manner: getting out of the actual artistic prac-
is easier to see from the sharp, contextually nar- tice of 'creation' or experimentation in order
rowed and lowered perspective of the "edge" than to research the concept and language of art
it is from the gaseous perspective of the "cen- itself, the status of the artistic object and sub-
tre". ject, the system of values and the tacit rules of
Once the "aura" of the work of art has started artistic behaviour (all broken by Tom Gotovac!). The
disappearing, as noticed by Walter Benjamin5. starting thesis is that each subject of art is a hypo-
leaving behind a trace like a stratum of inscrip- thetical product of the context within which they
tion within culture and a reflection of that form and work: there are models of 'artistic behav-
trace from culture, the old difference between iour', received through the education system or
the subject-author and object-product disap- acquired through work in the concrete world of art.
peared as well. The concept of the subject is so that the means of linguistic, political and ideo-
differentiated: from the producer and presen- logical analyses are used to understand the nature
ter of the work to the cultural construction of art and culture. This is why the problem of focus-
read from the work in communication with ing the traces of context comes to the forefront,
other subject of the society, culture and "the particularly when providing an insight into the gen-
world of art"6. Two types of artistic subject esis of the dominant paradigm of art in the second
are of particular importance for our theme: half of the 20th century.
the "emancipating" subject, and the "concep- Thus the question of innocence of the subject
tualistic" subject, both defined by the context becomes once again the centre of attention,
within which they operate. The former are because, as the subject creates meaning and sense of
open subjects, following their emancipating artistic work, artistic work also forms the subject's
intuitions in their movement through art and significant and evaluative imprint. Following such
the world: they are not tied to a specific analytical questions, nothing in art could remain as
object, medium or craft, so that the object, before: the status of artists no longer depended
event of "action" (a term functionalised in the chiefly on 'academic' craft, technique. expression.
conceptual approach of Vlado Martek) are medium etc., but rather on the concept of art and
used as the means for changing themselves, the strategy used by the artist in order to produce a
their own world, but also the society. Tied to work of art and the world of art. However. to stay
certain spiritual values, as members and prod- true to history, the new Western art also started its
ucts of the modern urban culture (the "urban- victorious linear march with Bruneleschi's renais-
isation of artistic experience", Red Peristyle, sance conceptualisation of art as project. so that the
THE MISFITS I
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