[Nettime-ro] ultimele zile HOW INNOCENT IS THAT

[PAVILION [contemporary art & culture magazine] <pavilion@pavilionmagazine.org>]

REMINDER: expozitia se va inchide pe 5 iulie 2009.
Centrul PAVILION se va redeschide pe data de 10 septembrie cu  
expozitia "Exploring the Return of Repression".




(For English please scroll down)


HOW INNOCENT IS THAT?
30 aprilie - 05 iulie 2009

Curator: Eugen Radescu

Participanti: AES+F (Rusia), Carlos Aires (Spania), Juan delGado  
(Spania/UK), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Germania).

"In razboi nu exista victime inocente. Nici macar simplu complice nu  
te poti considera in cazul participarii la razboi pentru ca a depins  
de mine, ca pentru mine si prin mine, acest razboi sa nu existe iar eu  
am hotarit ca el exista... Cel care participa la razboi s-ar fi putut  
sustrage prin sinucidere sau dezertare. Nici razboiul si nici  
torturile nu sunt inumane... Inumanul este hotarit numai de om prin  
frica, fuga sau apel la magie..." (Jean-Paul Sartre)

"Cine mai poate fi astazi atent la masacrarea inocentei? Inocentii de  
ieri trimit astazi bombe â aceste daruri supreme ale neputintei,  
josniciei si incapabilului. Exista un Orient al inocentei precum  
exista un Occident al inocentilor. Traind in Romania â starea si  
paideuma inocentei in forma sa dezechilibrata, nefericita si tampa imi  
imaginam ca âstrainulâ cu a sa âstrainatateâ insemna ceva â  
altceva (cu al sau alter). Nimic mai fals. Suntem cu totii falsi,  
dezintegrati, abatuti, neinocenti. Neatenti. Civilizatia nu inseamna  
masina cu aburi, ci inseamna civilitatea â acea putinta de a avea  
relatii civice, civile, de a avea norme de drept. Cumva, aceste  
atribute sunt pierdute. Am uitat sa fim civici, am pierdut civilizatia  
â am devenit inocente aspiratoare de ignoranta, durere, patima, ura,  
show. Este mult mai usor acum sa omori o mie de oameni decat sa spui  
âbuna ziuaâ.
Proiectul propus este structurat pe trei segmente, trei parti, menite  
sa descrie cat mai ilustrativ termenul de inocenta in diversele sale  
slabiciuni si corelatii.
1. Adversarul.
Prima parte a proiectului "How innocent is that?" propune o abordare a  
termenului de inocenta din prisma unui termen extrem de actual si  
controversat: socialismul. Inocenta in socialism si/sau socialismul ca  
ideologie inocenta. In secolul al XIX-lea Marx anunta incantat  
sfirsitul statului prin sfarsitul luptei de clasa, dominatia omului de  
catre om sfarsindu-se odata cu aparitia societatii imaginate de ei:  
una perfect egala, fara lupte de clasa, care era societatea  
socialista. Nici de putere politica nu mai este nevoie pentru ca in  
societatea socialista nimeni nu conduce pe nimeni, este doar o miscare  
necesar-istorica: clasa muncitoare va inlocui vechea societate  
burgheza cu o asociatie care exclude clasele si antagonismul dintre  
ele. Secolul XIX a fost secolul utopiei socialiste insa indiferent de  
meritele atribuite, era o ideologie impracticabila. Secolul XX a fost  
scena realismului socialist â perioada in care, datorita cruntelor  
experiente de razboi si a slabirii sociale, socialismul a avut parte  
de o puternica re-izbucnire (dintr-un curent de gindire  
âundergroundâ devine o ideologie de stat). Nu ma intereseaza aici o  
istoriografie a socialismului dar gasesc ca ar fi interesant de stiut  
faptul ca aceasta doctrina si-a tras seva din contexte filosofice,  
politice si religioase dintre cele mai interesante.
2. Albul Pur.
Reflexia, de data aceasta, porneste prin abordarea unui concept- 
metafora din zona simtului-comun: inocenta asimilata copilariei,  
inocenta copiilor imbracati in alb, unde albul devine dintr-o non- 
culoare, o "culoare" a puritatii.
3. Grotescul Inocentei.
Ultima parte dezbate denaturarea termenului de inocenta si a  
implicatiilor sale, vulgaritatea acestui concept in relatia sa cu  
morala, Dumnezeu si sexualitatea. Suntem tentati sa ridiculizam viata  
zilnica prin accesul la actiuni grotesti, mai degraba decit la cele ce  
tin de un comportament standard â socialmente si moralmente acceptat  
de toata lumea. Regulile sunt absurde, conventiile la fel. Ele sunt  
fara continut. Nu te poti increde in ele.
Inocenta testeaza validitatea standardelor si conventiilor sociale.
Cum ma pot raporta la cei din jurul meu cind sunt nevoit sa  
convietuiesc cu cei pe care nu-i cunosc?
In Occident nu exista arta erotica; nu invatam sa facem dragoste, nu  
invatam sa oferim placere, nu invatam sa producem placere celorlalti,  
nu invatam sa maximizam placerea prin placerea celorlalti. In schimb,  
avem in Occident o stiinta sexuala â scientia sexualis â despre  
sexualitatea oamenilor, si nu despre placerea lor. Adevar al sexului,  
nu intensitate a placerii.
In ce scop (ne) perpetuam? In scopul placerii personale (hedonismul  
pre-crestin) sau in dorinta de a perpetua specia (post-crestinism)?
Deseori a reusit sa ma uimeasca violenta cu care preotimea, si in  
special cea ortodoxa si catolica, priveste subiectul sexualitatii.  
Casatoria, spre exemplu, este pentru ei, nu o forma ceva mai  
ârelaxataâ a sexualitatii dure, vegetative, animalice, ci  
reprezinta o unire a barbatului cu femeia, mijlocita prin si de  
puterea divina." (Eugen Radescu, din volumul "How Innocent Is That?")

Publicatie: "How Innocent Is That?", 14,5 x 19,5 cm, romana/engleza,  
112 pagini, editata de Revolver Books Berlin. Disponibila in format  
tiparit la www.revolver-books.de sau la Pavilion UniCredit.
Poate fi downloadata gratuit in format pdf la : http://www.pavilionunicredit.ro/en/publications.html

Editie limitata: 50 de exemplare contin o carte postala editie  
limitata numerotata si semnata de Carlos Aires. Infomatii la pavilion@pavilionmagazine.org

------

HOW INNOCENT IS THAT?

April 30 - July 05, 2009

Curator: Eugen Radescu

Participants: AES+F (Rusia), Carlos Aires (Spain), Juan delGado (Spain/ 
UK), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Germany).

âIn war there are no innocent victims. One might be tempted perhaps  
to consider me as a simple accomplice. But this notion of complicity  
has only a juridical sense, and it does not hold here. For it depended  
on me that for me and by me this war should not exist, and I have  
decided that it does exist... The one who takes part into war could  
always get out of it by suicide or by desertion. Neither the war, nor  
the tortures are inhumane... Only the man could decide the inhumane  
through fear, desertion or resort to magic...â (Jean-Paul Sartre)

In our times, who can pay much attention to the massacre of the  
innocence? The innocents of yesterday are sending the bombs of today,  
these supreme gifts of helplessness, infamy and failure. There is an  
East of the innocence, like there is a West of the innocents. As I am  
living in Romania â the state and paideuma of innocence in its  
unbalanced, unhappy and dumb form â I imagined the âstrangerâ,  
with his âstrangenessâ, was something â something else (together  
with his alter). Far from the truth. We are all false, disintegrated,  
miserable, and lacking innocence. Lacking interest. Civilization  
doesnât mean the steam engine, but it means civility, the ability to  
have civic relationships, to follow judicial norms. Somehow, all these  
attributes are lost. We have forgotten our civility; we lost our  
civilization. We have become innocent vacuum cleaners and we are  
sucking in ignorance, pain, ardour, hatred, show. Nowadays it is  
easier to kill one thousand people than say âHave a good dayâ.
The project advanced here is structured in three segments, three  
sections, and they aim to describe as illustrative as possible the  
word âinnocenceâ, with all its weaknesses and associations.
1. The Opponent
The first part of the project âHow innocent is that?â suggests a  
way to approach the term âinnocenceâ from an extremely topical and  
highly controversial angle: the socialism. Innocence in socialism and/ 
or socialism as innocent ideology.
In the 19th century Marx willingly announced the end of the state  
through the end of the class struggle, as the exploitation of man by  
man ends together with the emergence of the society they imagined: a  
perfect egalitarian society, without any class struggle, namely the  
socialist society. The political power was not needed, either, because  
in the socialist society nobody rules anybody; it is just a  
historically necessary development: the working class will replace the  
old bourgeois society with an association that eliminates classes and  
class antagonisms.
The 19th century was the century of the socialist utopia, but it was  
an inapplicable ideology, regardless of the merits ascribed to it. The  
20th century was the arena of the socialist realism, the period when  
socialism knew a strong revival, because of the atrocious war  
experiences and the weakening of the society (it turned from an  
underground doctrine into a state ideology). I am not interested here  
in the historiography of the socialism, but I believe it interesting  
to point out that the above-mentioned doctrine drew its vigour from  
the most interesting philosophical, political and religious contexts.
2. The pure white
This time the reflexion begins by approaching a concept-metaphor from  
the area of the common sense: the innocence associated with the  
childhood, the innocence of the white-vested children, where white  
turns from a non-colour to a âcolourâ of the purity.
3. The grotesque of innocence
The last section, âThe grotesque of innocenceâ, debates over the  
misconception of the term âinnocenceâ and its implications, and the  
crudeness of this concept in its relation with the morals, God and  
sexuality. We are tempted to ridicule the every day life by accessing  
rather grotesque actions than standard behaviour actions that are  
socially and morally accepted by everyone. The regulations are absurd,  
and so are the conventions. They are lacking substance. You cannot  
trust them.
The innocence verifies the validity of the social norms and conventions.
How can I relate to the people close to me, when I am compelled to  
live together with those I donât know?
The West has no erotic art. We donât learn how to make love, we  
donât learn how to offer pleasure, we donât learn how to pleasure  
the others, we donât learn how to maximize our pleasure through  
othersâ pleasure. Instead, the West has a sexual science â scientia  
sexualis â, dealing with peopleâs sexuality, not with peopleâs  
pleasure; the truthfulness of sex, not the intensity of pleasure.
Why do we reproduce (ourselves)? Is it for our personal pleasure (the  
pre-Christian hedonism) or from the wish to perpetuate the species  
(post-Christianity)?
I have been frequently amazed by the priestsâ violent attitude  
(especially the Orthodox priests) while approaching the sexuality  
topic. Marriage, for example, is for them not a more ârelaxedâ form  
of the crude, vegetative, carnal sexuality, but the union of man and  
woman, mediated through and by the divine power. (Eugen Radescu, from  
the book "How Innocent Is That?").

Publication: "How Innocent is That?", 14.5 x 19.5 cm, English/ 
Romanian, 112 pages, published by Revolver Books Berlin.
Available at www.revolver-books.de and pavilion@pavilionmagazine.org
PDF free download at http://www.pavilionunicredit.ro/en/publications.html

Special limited edition of 50 containing a signed and numbered limited  
edition postcard by Carlos Aires. More info and pre-orders for the  
limited edition at ioana.nitu@pavilionmagazine.org

Eugen Radescu is politologist (specialized in moral relativism and  
political ethics), cultural manager, curator and theoretician. He  
writes for various magazines and newspapers. He curated Bucharest  
Biennale 1 with the theme "Identity Factories". He is co-editor of  
Pavilion magazine and co-director of Bucharest Biennale (with Razvan  
Ion) and the chairman of the organizational board of Pavilion and  
Bucharest Biennale. He lectured at Art Academy - Timisoara, La Casa  
Encedida - Madrid, Calouste Gulbenkian - Lisbon, Apex Art - New York,  
etc. He recently return from a residency at Apex - New York and  
published the book "How Innocent is That?" at Revolver Publishing -  
Berlin. He is presently working on a new book on moral relativism.  
Lives and works in Bucharest.


Image: Juan delGado, videostill from "don't look under the bed", DVD,  
2001, 8 min 11 sec. Courtesy the arist.


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