metropolis m

In an interview with a French magazine art press, Pierre Huyghe talks about a project that was also featured in this METROPOLIS M. ‘There was a time in the history of mankind when reality was narrated or interpreted, and very often, reinvented. This system of storytelling, of the production of myths, has been lost with the arrival of mechanical reproduction. I think there is a strong need for the creation of zones of non-knowledge which can give rise to stories and monsters.’ (art press 322/2006). In a newspaper interview the cultural philosopher René Boomkens explains the extent to which the world finds itself in a new, chaotic stage, following the stage of modernism and the reaction to that, postmodernism. We live in a state of complete chaos, without a direction, without an aim. The way of thinking of the enlightenment has come to an end, and with it, all the systematic perspective and direction which we still wished to impose on existence in the twentieth century, on the basis of the idea that everything would become better. Myths and other forms of irrationality become more important and provide the certainties which communities can use as a guideline, even if this is only temporary. We believe in them, even if we sometimes realise all too well that we are kidding each other. At the Berlin Biennale 4 and the Whitney Biennale a completely different line was taken, compared to previous large international exhibitions, which adopted a uniform, utopian agenda. Nothing is what it seems anymore. Curators appear not to be who they are, artists pretend to be someone else, galleries are founded which are not real galleries but nevertheless do their best to appear to be galleries, and artists put their hearts and souls into the reconstruction of lives of people who did – and yet did not – exist. On TV, Oprah has said that credibility is what it’s all about. It’s only when you’re no longer credible that you have a problem. This has nothing to do with truth or lies, although I think Oprah probable thinks it does. Credibility is not an ethical concept, but a matter of presentation and conviction. Just ask Sven Augustijnen. Back to Huyghe, who adopts the Peter Pan syndrome during the interview referred to above, viz. the stubborn desire not to grow up, with all the irresponsible behaviour that involves. ‘What interests me is the childish start of something, the moment at which it is still possible to invent the world, when fact and fiction come together in the same game, when something new is created in the present, without any projection and for no useful purpose.’ It is the summer of 2006. Welcome to the fairy tale that is art. DR