For a long time, the way we talked about art, especially in the Western tradition, tended to put it on a pedestal. Think about the idea of 'formal analysis' or the cult of the 'genius artist.' It all pointed towards art being this self-contained, autonomous thing, separate from the messy realities of the world. This ideology, supported by art history, criticism, and the market, really took hold, especially with European Modernism spreading across the globe.
But as Caroline A. Jones, a professor at MIT, pointed out in a fascinating lecture, art was never truly autonomous. Artists, like all of us, have ambitions. They want to connect, to be part of something bigger – cosmopolitan, international, global, even universal. This desire to reach beyond the studio walls is where things get really interesting.
Jones suggests we look at art's history from a different angle, one that challenges this idea of autonomy. She points to phenomena like world's fairs and the more recent explosion of biennials and art festivals. These aren't just neutral platforms; they actively shape how we see art and the world. Philosopher Martin Heidegger even called the 'world picture' generated by world's fairs a 'pernicious technological effect.'
Instead of focusing on the 'autonomous object,' Jones encourages us to think about the 'working of art' – art as a process, an ongoing action. This shift happens when we consider the 'desiring audience.' It's not just about what the artist creates, but how viewers, artists, and organizers interact within these massive international art events. These fairs and biennials, in a way, set up a system of rules, a kind of 'predicated internationalism,' that artists adapt to and audiences learn from.
She introduces concepts like 'blind epistemology' – how we might think we're seeing clearly, but our understanding is shaped by unseen biases – and 'the aesthetics of experience.' It’s about how we physically and cognitively engage with art, especially in a global context. The distinction between 'globalization' (the interconnectedness) and 'globalism' (the ideology behind it) also becomes crucial here.
Ultimately, by examining these grand exhibitions and the strategies artists employ within them, we can see how viewers, perhaps unknowingly, learn about their own situatedness, their own 'politics of the partial view.' It’s a reminder that art, far from being isolated, is deeply embedded in the complex, often contradictory, currents of our globalized world, and our understanding of it is always a work in progress.
