Ja, det här med konstens ambitioner och vad som just nu ligger på trendtoppen. Bättre än i nedanstående text kan det knappast sammanfattas. Adam Szymczyk, ansvarig för Documentautställningen 2017 ger en fullständig rapport (Frieze):
“Yes, for documenta 14, we tried to identify causes, not illustrate effects. The Code noir rendered human beings exclusively as economic assets, as material. Its rationality is in line with the developments in French, English and German philosophy during the 17th and 18th centuries that laid the foundations for the present. Modernity and colonization are intertwined. The European Enlightenment found its corollary in the institution of slavery. Similarly, archaeology went hand in hand with imperialist wars from its beginning. Both aspired to chart and conquer territories as well as to subjugate and exploit peoples and their cultures.
Museums hold spoils from multiple wars. Their displays represent, safeguard and effectively perpetuate historically established power relationships, built on injustice, inequality and violence. In documenta 14, we looked at continuities: arcs that span from the age of Enlightenment to the age of concentration camps to the current neoliberal ordeal. We aimed at exposing the construction, formation and mutation of forms of power and knowledge in Europe, preceding the current global imperial order. We identified gaps and cracks in the apparatus – learning from indigenous knowledges, artisanship, minority struggles, overlooked artistic and spiritual traditions, often preserved in marginalized artistic practices, including oral traditions and sound, from voice to music to noise.”
´Det västerländska förtrycket har dock möjliggjort att det västerländska förtrycket kan estetiseras till konst och att denna kultur är den enda som intresserar sig för att behandla frågan ur akademiskt och estetiskt perspektiv. Effekten kan beskrivas som ”tjusig”.
Jag tror mer på Erik Beckmans förslag till en performance: Någon springer in i riksdagshuset och ropar: ”Rabarber, rabarber!” För den moraliskt känslige bör det tilläggas att denna konsthandling kan tolkas postkolonialt och avkoloniserande om man så önskar.
