artć + societate / arts + society #38, 2011 20 lei / 11 €, 14 USD - idea

The Fountainhead, 2010, video, B&W, mute, 110’, courtesy: the artists © Société Réaliste
racter cu un fundal istoric complex, ca pentru a demonstra, o datæ în plus, cæ semnul
confline în mod necesar un sens øi o origine ce sînt de descifrat.
Hibridarea semnelor e recurentæ la Société Réaliste. Ei fabricæ ceva ce ei numesc
„semne-centaur“, precum cele douæ sculpturi negre læcuite care se aflæ în corespondenflæ
de la un capæt la celælalt al primei sæli din expoziflie, Zero Euro (2010) øi Infinite
Dollar (2011). Formele lor explicitate prin titlu încastreazæ de fiecare datæ douæ
semne unul într-altul: zeroul øi euro sau semnul infinitului øi dolarul. Ceea ce-i intereseazæ
pe artiøti e impactul provocat de colajul a douæ semne. Cum sæ gîndeøti de
fapt o monedæ legatæ de o valoare nulæ sau infinitæ?
Société Réaliste se pune sæ deturneze øi un alt tip de sistem de reprezentare, cartografia,
foarte prezentæ în expoziflie. Cæci „orice hartæ e un simbol al puterii omului
asupra lumii“. 1 În mîinile cooperativei, harta devine instrument al unor speculaflii
necontenit declinate. E vorba aici de miøcarea frontierelor, de arbitrarul formei flærilor,
de reprezentarea lor fizicæ øi simbolicæ. Fiecare dintre hærflile lor face demonstraflia
acestui fapt, iar ceea ce e pus neîncetat în joc e eøecul acestui sistem de reprezentare.
În proiectul Cosmopolites de tous les pays encore un effort [Cosmopolifli din toate
flærile, încæ un pic] (2010), suprapunerea celor 192 de state membre ale Nafliunilor
Unite tinde sæ se asemene unui rectanglu, formæ geometricæ mai mult culturalæ decît
naturalæ, în vreme ce capitala are tendinfla sæ se regæseascæ în centrul patrulaterului.
Forma finalæ a „statului-medie“ îøi aflæ formalizarea într-o sculpturæ masivæ din
aluminiu cu o formæ frapantæ. Aceastæ chestiune a mediei reia o cale deja frecventatæ
în proiectul intitulat United Nations Brown [Nafliunile Unite Maro], care definea
culoarea medie a drapelelor celor 192 de flæri membre ale Nafliunilor Unite. Procedeele
acestea de raflionalizare denunflæ, nu færæ umor, absurditatea logicii universalizante.
Uneltele øi tematicile abordate de Société Réaliste alimenteazæ un cîmp de reflecflie
complex øi intens, el însuøi hrænit de un flesut de referinfle pletorice la istoria revolufliilor
øi a utopiilor politice øi sociale. Expoziflia e reflexul unei gîndiri-palimpsest øi în
efervescenflæ, dupæ chipul autorilor ei, a cærei formulare plasticæ, profund marcatæ
de estetica conceptualæ, nu oferæ întotdeauna øi cheile. Departe de a abandona inteligibilitatea,
aceasta e de cæutat în scrierile øi conferinflele cooperativei. Aceastæ dimensiune
discursivæ este o parte indisociabilæ a practicii lor, vizibilæ mai ales în catalogul,
de o densitate raræ, ce însofleøte expoziflia.
94
Traducere de Adrian T. Sîrbu
Notæ:
1. Giorgio Mangani, citat de Société Réaliste, in Société Réaliste, Empire, State, Building, Paris/Budapesta, Editura
Amsterdam/Jeu de Paume/Ludwig Museum, 2011, p. 10.
suspected of having a Jewish origin. Futura has also been prohibited
by the same régime, this time due to its modernist aesthetics taken
from Bauhaus. Futura Fraktur is a composite typographic style, born
of the fusion of these two alphabets, which proves the ideological
load carried by the sign. Far from being a simple convention, the latter
circulates thoughts, uses, and collective stories. Limes New Roman
(2008), made of 46 characters, is detailed letter by letter on one of
the exhibition walls. Each sign, refering to a letter of the Latin alphabet,
represents the drawing of a recent geopolitical separation wall,
at the scale of a city for the lower-cases and that of a country for the
upper-cases. This cryptography, decipherable with difficulty, is a
way of charging each character with a complex historical setting,
as if it was trying to demonstrate once more that the sign contains
of necessity a meaning and an origin which are to be deciphered.
The hybridation of signs is recurrent at Société Réaliste. They fabricate
something they call “Centaur signs“, such as the two varnished
black sculptures responding from out to out of the first hall from the
exhibition, Zero Euro (2010) and Infinite Dollar (2011). Their forms
developed through the title embed each time two signs together:
the zero and the euro or the sign of the infinite and the dollar.
What interests the artists is the impact provoked by the collage of
two signs. How can you actually think a currency connected with
a null or infinite value?
Société Réaliste tackles on diverting another type of representation
system as well, the cartography, very present in the exhibition.
Because “every map is a symbol of man’s power upon the world“. 1
In the hands of the cooperative, the map becomes an instrument
of relentlessly declined speculations. It is a question here relating
to the movement of the borders, to the arbitrary of the countries’
shape, to their physical and symbolical representation. Each of their
maps demonstrates this fact, and the failure of this representation
system is what is being constantly at stake. In the project Cosmopolites
de tous les pays encore un effort (2010), the superposition of
the 192 member states of the United Nations tends to be like a rectangle,
a geometrical shape rather cultural than natural, as the capital
tends to be found in the centre of the quadrangle. The final shape
of the “average-state“ finds its formalization into a massive aluminum
sculpture with a striking shape. This question of the average
continues an approach already followed by the cooperative in the
project entitled United Nations Brown, which defined the average
colour of the flags belonging to the 192 member countries of the
United Nations. These methods of rationalization denounce, not
without humour, the absurdity of the universalizing logic.
The tools and the subjects tackled by Société Réaliste fuel a complex
and intense field of reflection, itself nourished by a tissue of plethoric
references to the history of revolutions, and social and political
utopias. The exhibition is the reflex of a palimpsest and seething
thinking, in similitude to its authors, whose plastic formulation, profoundly
marked by the conceptual aesthetics, does not always offer
the keys as well. Far from abandoning the intelligibility, this one is
to be searched for in the writings and conferences of the cooperative.
This discursive dimension is an indivisible part of their practice,
visible specially in the catalogue of a rare density which accompanies
the exhibition.
Translated by Sabin Borø
Note:
1. Giorgio Mangani quoted by Société Réaliste in Société Réaliste,
Empire, State, Building, Paris/Budapest, Editions Amsterdam/
Jeu de Paume/Ludwig Museum, 2011, p. 10.