To be valued culturally, it must be difficult, elevated, sublime, special. This difficulty guarantees its exclusive status as a culture of another level. This difficulty excludes and guarantees the exclusivity of its audience. This socioeconomic category as a level of quality functions as a class badge. The consumption of culture is designed to fulfill the social function of differentiating and legitimizing these differences. This can be seen when looking at popular culture from its commercial aspect of mass production. In contrast, elitist culture is the result of an individual act of creation. While mass culture only requires a little research to reveal its short proposal, elite culture has segregated itself from it by transforming the details of its differentiating value.
In contemporary art we do not see a final goal, but rather it subordinates the embodiment of reality to the transmission of an idea, reproducing reality, aiming to go further. The path is more valuable than what is obtained at the end of the path. This little story explains it:
A motorcyclist was driving down an unpaved road when he saw a huge sign that said, beware of the dog. A little further on there was another much larger sign with the same message, and even a third sign before arriving. When the motorcyclist arrived at the house, there was a poodle at the door. He asked the owner, do you think this little dog can keep intruders away? The dog can’t, but the signs can. People are so scared of signs, symbols, words, language, that they don’t bother to see if there really is a dog or not.
Within the commercial logic of the cultural industry we observe a progressive loss of critical capacity, something inherent to independent and alternative culture, according to Polansky. This emerged under the idea of rupture from a DIY attitude “do it yourself”, it is absorbed by the corporate framework, diminished of its critical essence.
Who forces you to remain critical of everything around you? AI artificial intelligence.
Contemporary art is the ultimate powerful tool of expression and communication that inevitably has consequences, given its ability to reflect, question and influence our society.
Editorial by Abate Bussoni, published in ARTNOBEL Inspiration Review of Contemporary Art issue #24 featuring Dalo Unique.
Image courtesy: © Máxima Romero Intervened photograph of the candles of the Abbey of Montserrat. S/T, 2024.