ARTIFICIAL HELLS

artificial hells
Milan Knížák, A Demonstration for All the Senses, 1964
demonstration’), the participants were instructed to go back to their homes.
Knížák designated as the ‘second demonstration’ everything that took
place in the subsequent fortnight, as if to draw attention, almost pedagogically,
to the continuous resonance of these actions in the weeks that
followed. For Knížák, the emphasis was on playfulness, shared experience,
and blurring the line between everyday actions and events. It aimed to
create a different mindset in the participants, disrupting their usual behaviour,
producing a non- conformist attitude that broke with everyday
routine. However, we should resist the temptation to make leftist political
claims for this non- conformity: the work sprang from an existential
impulse, seeking to generate a territory of free expression, a celebration of
idiosyncrasy rather than social equality. 15
To these ends, Knížák also sought to provoke the anonymous public by
distributing large quantities of public letters. In Letter to the Population
(1965), he incites the public to disruptive but life- affirming actions:
Scribble obscene inscriptions on every street corner in the vicinity of
your apartment!
Give your salary to the first nice person whom you meet!
Masturbate incessantly for 8 hours!
Burn every book on your bookshelf! . . .
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