joaoflux / digital / analog / culture

At last year’s “Berlin Biennial For Contemporary Art” I eavesdropped two visitors who were reading the introduction text for the exhibition (no link - I havn’t found it on the net yet). One of them said he thought the text reminded him to the writings by RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion). From the way they talked about the text and the exhibition in general I concluded that they were not professional art people. That was probably why he could come up with this correct formal analysis of the text.

To me the resemblance is of course no surprise. Both, RAF and contemporary “knowledge producers” in the art system use political terminology and simulacra in order to reinforce and establish their own somewhat outdated systems (”bewaffneter Kampf” on one hand, art on the other hand).

At least terrorism has understood by now that politics has little sex appeal: The potential of religion is obviously much greater.

“Regarding Terror: The RAF-Exhibition” (1, 2, 3, 4) opens at KW Berlin(one of the exhibition spaces of the Biennial) on Saturday.

More about Art & Terror:

Art is not Terrorism

The art of terror

Art, Terror and Stockhausen