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904 Institutionsan d Objections

varying gifts of individuals and groups. THE ORGANIZATION FOR DIRECTDEMOCRACY THROUGH REFER;ENlDUM is one such group. It seeks tolaunch many similar work groups or iilfdrmation centres, and strives towardsWorld-wide cOoperation.

5 Hans Haacke (b. 1936)Statement

Haacke's early work involved the productidn of selkontained systems, such as tProcess of condensation within a glass box, as part of the international series Ilf breafrom conventional Modernism which IlccU(rj!d in t~e mid! 960s. As(he 1960s Pro.gressed, however, his art be

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VIle' Political Aspects 905

ate ,faithfully translating'the interests of their superiors 1ntoc'l1uiseumpolicy,partiClilarly since new cultural manifes~ations.are;not'alway~,recogniiable ,as to iheir

suftability or;:o'p'po'siiion to"the parties concerned. :The potentiai for confus~ionis increased by the fact that the convictions of an "~rtise are 'n~'t nece~ssarilyreflected in the objective position his/her work takes 00, the socio-politicaJ scaleand that this'l;osition could change' over 'rhe 'years to the 'priiht tif'reversal.

Still,' in 'brae-fro gain some insight into the fdrcb that eley:tte ceita'in productsto the level of 'works of art' it is helpful '" ~moh\i othednve~'tigadons'- 'to look into the economic and politic~t' underpititiingd\f the 'iiistitiltidns;' 'individualsand grOups who share in the"control of cultural'paw'er. " " j;, , , ' ,"'Sttategies iriii#' 'be developed for performing thIs' task in' ways that itsmanifestations' arctliable !e....b~~cdrlsidered 'works of art' in tliejr 'own rigHt. Notsurpdsingljl"some"!nuSeumS"dd hot'think they havesufident ind'ependence toexhibit s'uchi a pdttrait bf their own structure and try to dissuade or'eveh- d:hsorWOIJSofthi's nafufe, - a sh;ts been demonstrated, Fortunately art instinitibns andother-tuitutal po,ver a'gents do' 'not forma 'monolithiC block, so that 'the public'saccesS''to 'such" works' might be limited but nor totally prevented.'"Beitolt Biecht'sl934 appraisal ohhe 'Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth'is Still valid/today. 'they atc' the n~ed' for"the courage' to' write ,the truth,although;it'is beirig"supptessed;' the 'intelligence to recognize it, although it isbe'i'ng 1cov:ere'd up;ithe judgement to' choose those -in whose hands itdbeco'meseffectiVe;"the cunning to' spread 'it among them.'

There' are 'no 'artists" .hoWeve'f) whti a re immune to being affected" andin/Juenc'ed by the sodo-political value-system of the' sodetyin which they liveand of lI'hieh all cultural:ageneies arc"a part, no matter if they are ignorant of these contraints or not-(,artist' 'like' ~work of are are put 'in quotation marksbecause:'they are predicates with evaluative- connotations deriving' thdr -currencyfrom ,the 'relative ,ideological frame 'of a' given cultural power group). So-called'ilvartt-gard'e 'art' is at best \\vorking' dose to the limitations set by its! cilltu-ral/political environment, but it always' operates within that 'allowance.'-':'II .

. 'Artists"as much as their supporters andith'eir enemies, no matter- of \vhitideological coloration, are unwitting partners in the art..;syndrome and relate toeach .other 'dialectically. T.hey participate jointly in the maintenance and/ordevelopment of the ideological makeup of their society. They work wi.hill' thatframe, 'set the frame and are being framed. . i r: '

6 Mel Ramsden (b. 1944) from 'On Prac,tice'

Rain~d'en and Ian Surn merged their collabora\ive practice with Art & Langua~e 'ir \n O .Sy 1975 some thirty people were associated with the name, equally divided betweenEngland and New York. Three issues of TheF o x were publishedby an Art & Langua'geFoundation in New York, with an editorial Doard which included Ramsde'ri and )osephKosufh.The declared 'aim of the'journal was to establish a basis for community practicethrough critical address to the contingent conditions of. the New York art world.The Fox'was instrumental' in the Artists ' Meeting for Cultural Change, which formed as akind of revival of the Art W orkers' Coalitio,n.The title of Ramsden's ,essay makes ironic

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[. .. ] Co~sider the following: that ~he administrators, dealer~" criti~~, p~ndit~,~t'f,. ~,Q.o once seemed the neutral serv~pts ? r 'art are, now, ,e s p < ; y i< ; \ll yin !>Jewtor.kl' becoming its masters. Ijas a4venturistic,New York art. .o f ,the Seventies(perhaps uncontrollably) become a function of the marketcsysteml.I~n't the waythi~ market vectors human relations. 'n~w a m~~~i'~ecqntroh~.ng f~~t~r ~p.t h ewayVie now vector human relations? f. simplified,al'd possibly, ~yen !"is\eadingaccount of how tile above has c~me ,abouf migh~ sound"s9m~thjng li~e this:there is prevalent in the New Yorkart 'l'.orld,a,lu,9.ic,0l'~ t1]odelqf the inqividualin society (I say the New York art worl

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>VIlc

or, at best, somebody else~s business. The situatiorr:beeoIhes, -to me, even morevain as,,we'ourse-lves'finally become our own..'ehtrepr'enetir:s-pundits, 'the middle-life 'of the market OUr.sole reality. 'To i increase.- the frenzi'ed -manipulation of

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908 Institutions andObjections

spectacle is absolu te ly fundamenta l to New York Adventur ism. The Cultura limperialism unwittingly exported everywhere by this adventurism is heinous andalienating - finaHy even to those who produce the exportst'The bureaucracywill-'subsume even the niost persistent iconoclasm unless we begin- to'act on therealization that its real SOurce of control lies in our very'concept of OUf own'private', .individual selves. The far-out and the outHmdish' is .dec"ply rooted inthe US as ,ev idence of f re edom and of t he truly moral ~ ,it is the lack o f examination of such a concept that makes niost present fday -radical-art radical-daft instead of radical-fundamental.,

7 lap. Burn (b. 1939) 'The Art Market: Aff1iienc~a,nd Degradalion' " , ,

. '; . . ."-Burn was rnvolved in the earl~ development of Conceptual Art arid. 'co.founded theSocieiy for Theoretical Art and Analyses with Roger Cutforth and Mel Ram~den in NewYork in 1969. iHe worked in New York with Ramsden 'and subsequenily' as a member0 1Art'.!ila~guage before reiJrriing to his native Australiain1976. H ise$say cOntributedto that"critical"engagement with th'e conditions of the NewYork art ' world whichdeveloped' within the 'American wing of' Art& language. It was not' published in eitherof the, group's own journals,however,but in the,mainstream publication Artforum, inApril,I975,. 'PP,.34-7,'from which the present text is,laken, The.essay-was reprintedin the,Art/orum Aothology,New York, 1984" " '" '

'-",

Impending"eco"omic crisis has forced many deeply, lurkipg 'problems into theopen: A r:t-sale~are .dedining and- there .is an air of pessimism. i The sense of opulence ofthe.1960s has gone to dust. As 'artists, we have,tended to';understandthe-.ar! market only. in its. reward capacity;1 preferring' to ignore the 'dismalscience' of econornics..Bul no longer;it ,seems.- WhiJe,it may-once ha.ve seemeda'n eX;:Jggeration of 'economic:determinism 'to'negard works, of art as' "merely.~commodities in .an economic exchange, it is now pretty; plain that our. entirelives-'havc. become' so exterisively constituted in these'terms that we: eannot an:vlonger pretend otherwise, Not only do works of art end up as commodities, buithere is also an over\\~helming sense in which works ~of arts/art 'off as' commoditie~1.lFaced-:with this. impasse, we 'need alternate historical perspectives ,in order ~throw light. on ,some ,of the most basic of social relations, to perc~h!e'the lacunablo tween what we, think we ,do and , what we 'actually ' doin the' world , Thohistorical relat ions ,df 'up-to-date modern art are the mar~et, , relations061.capital is t society. That muchI believe is, obvious to everyone., ,What ' .we ha~o"seen mone recently is the 'power of market values-tb dis\ort.,all other' valuesri.~even, the concept of what is and is not acceptable as'wotk',';s defined first, "n~i

fundamntally"by the market and , 'onlY'secondly, by'.'creative urges! (etl' .~/F.lJI.:]jas'deen the price of internalising an intensely capitalistic mode 'ofprdductioill'; ~Gien ,th~s; shouldn~t'we:, be scrutinizing certain,-historicaJly;mni.que, -aspeats;oI:out market:relations! How. have 'these, wroughtifundamentah,hanges, in,the fa.1f:pvoduced! I, know, many' of us,)are 'grateful berieficiaries of this ,market< NonV(

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of of oba,llors p