Rewolucja Myśli, czyli Artysta Wobec Zła. Rzecz o Pieterze Hugo. Dedykowane Andrzejowi Turowskiemu

Na początku XX wieku świat zmieniła I wojna światowa i rewolucja rosyjska. Później nadeszła II wojna światowa i Holocaust. Od tego czasu nic nie było takie jak wcześniej. Stary system polityczny przeminął, a zaczął się rozwijać nowy sposób myślenia. Sztuka także musiała zostać zmieniona i została. Po ponad dwóch tysiącach lat tradycyjnych stylów zmienił się starożytny kanon sztuki. Nowe społeczeństwo potrzebowało nowych myśli, nowej sztuki. W swojej książce Art That Sparks Unrest: The Artistic-Political Manifesto of Particular Art, Andrzej Turowski pokazał nam, że sztuka “by immersing itself in the politicality of social and historical conflicts (…) can subvert rationalizing or false answers to contemporary questions (about war, poverty, race, difference, aspiration, justice, dreams, law, happiness, etc.). (…) The radicalism of such art knows no limits: its participation extends to the whole of the public sphere, its testimony reaches even that which is most deeply hidden in personal experience, its ethics are uncontained by any morality, its criticism does not stop at any truth, its disobedience knows no law (…).The art of the particular is the anarchic and therefore political interposition.” Teoria Turowskiego jest bardzo pomocna w zrozumieniu współczesnej sztuki. W tym tekście wykorzystano ją w dyskusji o cyklu Pietera Hugo Vestiges of a Genocide. Porównując Holokaust i ludobójstwo w Rwandzie, interpretując sztukę Pietera Hugo, autor wskazuje, że sztuka ostrzega nas, że historia lubi się powtarzać.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the world was changed by the First World War and the Russian Revolution. Later on came the Second World War and the Holocaust. Since that time nothing was like before. The old political system had passed away and a new way of thinking started to grow. Art had to be changed, and was. After over two thousand years of traditional styles, the ancient canon of the Art became changed. A new society needed new thoughts, new Art. In his book, Art That Sparks Unrest: The Artistic-Political Manifesto of Particular Art, Andrzej Turowski shows us that art “by immersing itself in the politicality of social and historical conflicts (…) can subvert rationalizing or false answers to contemporary questions (about war, poverty, race, difference, aspiration, justice, dreams, law, happiness, etc.). (…) The radicalism of such art knows no limits: its participation extends to the whole of the public sphere, its testimony reaches even that which is most deeply hidden in personal experience, its ethics are uncontained by any morality, its criticism does not stop at any truth, its disobedience knows no law (…).The art of the particular is the anarchic and therefore political interposition.” Turowski’s theory is very helpful for understanding contemporary art. In this text it has been used in the discussion of Pieter Hugo’s Vestiges of a Genocide cycle. Comparing the Holocaust and the Rwanda Genocide, interpreting Pieter Hugo’s art, the author indicates that Art is warning us that history likes to be repeated.