El artista conceptual Paul McCarthy (no, no el Beatle, lean bien) puso esta escultura inflable de tamaño monumental en una de las principales plazas públicas de París, la cual se titula “Tree”. La pieza es a todas luces una figura a gran escala que replica la forma de un jugute sexual comúnmente usado en películas XXX y sitios web de pornografia.
A pesar de la naturaleza provocativa que una pieza así tiene, lo interesante de todo esto es, justamente, que como obra de arte no es interesante. Claro, no faltaron los puristas que pusieron el grito en el cielo con semejante intrusión y ofensa al paisaje parisino, lo que terminó de hacer a la pieza más famosa por el escándalo e indignación pública, que por sí misma como proyecto artistico, y el asunto terminó con el objeto siendo retirando del lugar en muy poco tiempo.
Pero aún así queda la duda -a mí y a otras personas, como quien escribió esta nota que comparto-, sobre lo interesante de todo este asunto, donde el arte provocativo ya no provoca nada, lo viral no garantiza popularidad, ni lo vulgar, afrenta alguna. Interntet nos ha dado acceso total a esa y a otras cosas mucho peores, y eso nos ha cambiado demasiado en nuestra forma de hacer y consumir informacion, en un fenómeno cultural que para algunos críticos es indicador de lo que llaman: una etapa “post-internet” en el mundo del arte. Eso sí es interesante…
What can be said of this impossible to ignore the—some might say—all too brief intrusion into Place Vendôme? (The piece has now been permanently removed.) Having been asked my opinion by a number of colleagues and friends I found myself, without too much forethought, responding that it is—if nothing else—perhaps the art we as western society in our later stages of decadence, truly deserve. A fact spoken of not only by the previously unimaginable level of recognition McCarthy’s sculpture has gained within society at large, but also because its (temporary) erection was done in celebration of another round of the worldwide, non-stop orgy of untrammelled consumerism that is the Art Fair circuit. I even wondered if this could be the physical manifestation of the Italian expression “estrarre il tappo” that translates as “pull the cork out” (meaning out of your arse, i.e., don’t be so uptight/pretentious). And subsequent to this appearance, the implication is that, as is the nature of Butt Plugs, it has been somehow, magically, removed from, rather than introduced to, the art world, and now across all these gatherings—FIAC, Frieze, Artissima, et al.—the gallerists were going to fall silent, the buyers put their wallets/egos away, and all these grand halls were going to slowly empty, the entire circus deflating like so much lurid green PVC. The amount of recognition would also seem to qualify this piece of art as being truly a work of the quandiu-internet art phase we are currently inhabiting (yes, I have just coined this term, but then again “post-internet art” seems a terrible misnomer as, for now at least, the internet doesn’t seem to be disappearing), and justanother cross semination between the worlds ofArt and Pornography. You’ve also got to question just how truly shocking is it? I mean, really? I can quite happily give you a list of plenty sexually explicit artworks we could consider far more shocking, from Koons’ Made in Heaven to Andrea Fraser’s Untitled, and even the depressingly desperate and heavy-handed work of Mischa Badasyan that recently gained half a second’s notice in the world (which, it must be said, is neither that interesting nor worth the risk of STDs)…
http://bit.ly/10H1zrG
i_alcocer ████████ 