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    Bourdieu, Pierre & Haacke, Hans.

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    Bourdieu, Pierre & Haacke, Hans.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    9 views78 pages

    Free Exchange

    Uploaded by

    Juan Gugger
    Bourdieu, Pierre & Haacke, Hans.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 78
    How can we affirm the independence of critical artists and intellectu: when confronted by the new crusaders of Western culture, the neo: conservative champions of morality and good taste, the sponsorship of multinationals and the patronage of the state, and the self-indulgent preoccupations of fashionable theorists who have lost all touch with reality? How can we safeguard the world of free exchange which is and must remais the world of artists, writers and scholars? These are some of the questions discussed by the leading social thinker Pierre Bourdieu and the artist Hans Haacke in this remarkable new book. Their frank and open dialogue on contemporary art and culture ranges widely, from censorship and obscenity to the social conditions of artistic creativity. Among the examples they discuss are the controversies surrounding the exhibition of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe and ‘Andres Serrano, the debates concerning multiculturalism and ethnic diversity, and the uses of art as a means of contesting and disrupting symbolic domination. They also explore the central themes of Hans Haacke’s work, which is used to illustrate the book Free Exchange is timely intervention in current debates and a powerful analysis of the conditions and concerns of critical artists and intellectuals today Pierre Bourdieu is Professor of Sociology at the College de France: Director of Studies at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales; editor of the journal Actes de la recherche en scien founded in 1975; and, since 1989, editor of the European review of books Liber. He is one of the most outstanding figures in contemporary thought. His many publications include The Field of Cultural Production and The Rules of Art Hans Haacke is a visual artist. He was born in Germany in 1936, and has in living in New York since 1965. He is Professor at The Cooper Union. He has had personal exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Act, Oxford; The Tate Gallery, London; The New Museum of Contemporary 7 e Stedelijk van Abbemuscum, Eindhc Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. In 1993 he shared, with Nam June Paik, the Golden Lion for the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Coverillusnation: Hans Haacke. Caligraphie (detail) 1989, Photo: Fred Seruton. ISBN 0-74Sb-3522-8 Printed in Great Britain Polity Press 1 oWaorestetseee> FREE EXCHANGE FREE EXCHANGE Pierre Bourdieu ‘and Hans Haacke Polity Press ‘This translation © Polity Press 1995, Originally published in French as Libre Echange ‘© Editions du Seuiles presses du ree, 1994 “Gondolst Gondola’, the photographs and commentaries hich accompany them © Hans Haacke. Published with the assistance of the French Ministry of Culture First published in 1998 by Potty Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Lid Echeoral Office Polity Press 65 Bridge Sircet ‘Cambrige C52 1UR, UK Marketing and production: Blackwell Publishers 108 Cowley Road Oxford OX JF, UK All ight reserved. Except forthe quotation of short passages forthe purposes of citicsm and review, no part ‘ofthis publication may be reproduced, stored in retneval sytem, oF transmitted, in ay form or by a1 means, ‘lectronie, mechanical, photocopying, recording or ‘otherwise, without the prior permitsien of the publisher. Except in the United States of Ameria, thi book is sold ‘subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade ‘oF otherwise, be lent, re-01d, hired oxt, or otherwise Sircalated without the publisher's prior consent in any form ‘of binding or cover other than that in which itis published ‘and without 2 similar condition ‘nciuding this eondition boing imposed on the subsequent purchaser, ISBN 07456 1821 X ISBN 0 7486 1522 8 (pbk) ‘A.CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Bish Library. ‘Typeset in 11 on 14 pt Times ‘by Intype, Lencon Printed in Great Britain by TL Press Padstow, Cornwall ‘This book is printed on acd-tree paper. Contents Publisher’s Note List of Hans Haacke’s works Foreword Helmsboro Country Sponsors who know the tune Creating @ sensation Real simulacra The crusaders of “high culture” Defense of the West and the return of absolutism In the state’s noose A politics of form Plain speaking ‘Too Good to be True by Pierre Bourdieu Gondola! Gondola! by Hans Haacke vi viii 4 19 28 55 68 101 113 125 Publisher’s Note ‘This book was initiated by the Fondation de France as part of the discussions and research it organized into the nature of current cultural changes and appropriate ways of respond- ing to them. ‘The Foreword, Pierre Bourdieu’s part of the dialogue, and “Too Good to be True” were translated by Randal Johnson. Hans Haacke's part of the dialogue and “Gondola! Gondola!” were translated by Hans Haacke himself. ‘The Publishers also gratefully acknowledge the help of Joe Johnson in the preparation of this edition. List of Hans Haacke’s works reproduced in this book Helmsboro Country, 1990 Raise the Flag, 1991 Les must de Rembrandt, 1986 Baudrichard’s Ecstasy, 1988 Calligraphy, 1989 And You Were Victorious After All, 1988 Cowboy with Cigarette, 1990 Freedom Is Now Simply Going To Be Sponsored — Out of Petty Cash, 1990 ‘One Day the Lions of Duleie September Will Spout Water in Jubilation, 1988/89 Germania, 1993 RALBSBe 92 102 17 Foreword ‘We met several times in the mid-1980s and very quickly discovered how much we had in common. The idea of this dialogue, arranged by Catherine Cullen, thus appealed to us from the outset. In November 1991, in Paris, we talked at length before a tape recorder. Then, with sometimes long delays, attributable to one or the other, we reworked the transcription, each one adding information and further reflections and reacting to the other’s reactions. We hope that at the end of this leng- thy process, which took a considerable amount of time, the text maintains the spontaneity of the original exchange and that, despite changes which have occurred in the political and cultural life of the United States and France, it retains its currency and efficacy. Pierre Bourdieu and Hans Haacke Paris and New York, 1993 PB: What strikes me about your artistic approach is that your work as a critical artist is accompanied by a critical analysis of the art world and of the very con- ditions of artistic production. The two forms of investi- gation nourish each other: your quasi-sociological observations and reflections are fully integrated into your artistic work. I have difficulty finding equivalents in the history of art, literature, and philosophy (one might think of Karl Kraus, who would put on literary ‘happenings which were at the same time critiques of the intellectual world). You have a truly remarkable “eye” for seeing the particular forms of domination that are exerted on the art world and to which, para- doxically, writers and artists are not normally very sen- sitive. You have analyzed a certain number of examples and, in particular, you often evoke Senator Helms as a sort of incarnation of America’s underlying nature. Helmsboro Country HH; I believe that Senator Jesse Helms taught artists, and other people who care about free expression, an important lesson. He reminded us that art productions are more than merchandise and a means to fame, as we thought in the 1980s. They represent symbolic power, power that can be put to the service of domination or emancipation, and thus has ideological implications with repercussions in our everyday lives. Helms made us recognize that free expression, even though guatan- teed by the Bill of Rights, is by no means secure without the vigilance of a public that is ready to fight for it. Who is this schoolmaster? The Republican Senator from North Carolina is an important figure in the net- work of Protestant fundamentalism and the extreme Right. He promotes right-wing movements and totalita- rian regimes around the world, is a foe of trade unions, and hates women and gay people who have the aud- city to claim their legitimate rights. A fierce enemy of abortion rights and of any form of sex education, he succeeded in killing a law that would have provided funds for AIDS education. His election campaigns are regularly laced with appeals to racist sentiments among white voters. In 1989, a year before the Federal elections, this champion of decency saw an opportunity to play the fundamentalist card at the national level. The South- Eastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) of Winston-Salem, in his home state of North Carolina, had put together a traveling exhibition of young artists 2 who had all received grants from the National Endow- ment for the Arts (NEA), grants that had been chan- nelied through SECCA.! In Richmond, Virginia, a fundamentalist foot soldier blew the whistle: among the works in the exhibition, he had discovered a photo- graph by the New York artist Andres Serrano on which a crucifix could be seen through an orange veil of tiny bubbles. It was impossible to tell what this veil con- sisted of. The work’s title explained it: Piss Christ. The ‘work was part of a series of photographs by Serrano in which the (Catholic) artist worked with body fluids such as blood, semen, etc. The alarm signal from Rich- mond triggered a flood of letters to members of Con- gress, charging that public funds had been used to subsidize a sacrilege. Only a well-oiled organization like the Reverend Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association of Tupelo, Mississippi, could have mounted such a campaign. This man of God had previously made himself a name with a crusade against Martin Scorsese’s film The Last Temptation of Christ. In Congress, the first to cry “blasphemy” was the Republican Senator Alfonse D'Amato, one of the two Senators from the State of New York. For a moment he thought that this issue provided an opportunity to make political hay. But he pulled back soon afterwards, when he ran into a wave of protests in his home state. His colleague from North Carolina, on the other hand, who did not have to take into account the cosmo- politan culture of New York, understood immediately “The NEA isan agency ofthe Federal Government, established to sopport the art. Its budget of $1703 milion (1993/0) i mizuscule compared t0 that of comparable agencies in other industrialized countries that an attack on the NEA could be of use at the national level in a drive towards a conservative revolu- tion. Shortly after the Serrano “scandal” broke, an exhibition of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe hit the news because it had also been supported by funds from the NEA. Helms charged that the artist, who had died of AIDS, was a pornographer and had been promoting homosexuality. When fall came around, the political climate of the country had deteriorated to the point that Congress passed an amendment, intro- duced by Helms, which prohibited public funds from being spent on “materials which in the judgment of the National Endowment for the Arts or the National Endowment for the Humanities may be considered ‘obscene, including but not limited to, depictions of sadomasochism, homocroticism, the sexual exploita- tion of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts. . .”? It was the first time since the establishment of the NEA that political criteria were imposed on the professional review panels who, until then, had been the only judges deciding on grant applications submitted by institutions and individual artists. Helms, being 2 consummate demagogue, made it known that those of his colleagues who would vote against his censorship law could expect to be accused in TV spots, during their campaign for reelection, of being in favor of subsidizing pornography with tax- payers’ money. To dismiss accusations of this sort, poli- ticians must spend considerable political and financial %0ist Congres, Public Law 101-121, October 23, 1989. In Culure Wars, ‘ed. Richard Bolton (New York, 1992), p. 121 4 capital — which keeps them from speaking about more important issues. Many, therefore, accepted limitations on the freedom of speech simply in order not to be caught in this bind? Through his Congressional Club, a political fund-raising organization that bankrolls can- didates of his choice, the Senator has another powerful instrument with which he wields political influence far exceeding that of his individual vote in the Senate. ‘The most recent version of the Helms amendment is fraudulently presented to the public as a compromise. Constitutional rights supposedly were preserved. How- ever, according to the updated law of October 1990, the chairman of the NEA must insure that the agency's decisions on awarding grants are “sensitive to the gen- eral standards of decency and respect and diverse beliefs of the American public.” This vague formula resembles the “gesundes Volksempfinden” that the Nazis invoked when they purged German museums of “degenerate art.” In effect, John E. Frohnmayer, the chairman of the NEA, was handed what amounts to an absolute veto over the grant recommendations of Even though Democrats are inthe majority in Congrest and a Democrat hnas been inthe White House since early 1993, a new Congressional atompt to abolish the NEA was rejected by fever votes than in the previous year, during the presidency of George Bush. Apparently t war for purely ‘deoiogical reasons that Congress, this time, reduced the NEA budget, which hhad been Kept atthe same level since the early 1980s. The debate over the budget was. dominated by criticism of two exhibitions at the Whitney Museum in New York, Abject Art Repulsion and Desire in Ameriin Art and The Subject of Rape. Both exhibitions were organized by students of the Whitney Independent Study Program, x program which has a currioral lwaining component and has Tecsived $20,000 for is activities fram the NEA. In 1994 the NEA budget was slashed by 2% 10 $167.4 million over ‘he Walker Art Centers contibution of $130 to 2 performance by Ron ‘Albey. The NEA then discontinued the graat program to istttions which had allowed tem to fund individual arts his professional peer review panels. He has since exer- cised this veto on several occasions. In order to avoid censorship, artists and institutions applying for public funds are now driven to exercise self-censorship. It is well known that self-censorship is often more effective than open censorship. And it doesn’t leave a dirty trail. PB; But there have also been cases of works banned because of obscenity. HH: The first spectacular case was the cancellation of the retrospective exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, in 1989, a few weeks before the opening. The exhibition had been organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art in Phil- adelphia, with a grant from the NEA. The museum in Washington was one of many stops on a nationwide tour which included Berkeley, Hartford, Boston, and Cincinnati. It was in Cincinnati that the director of the local Contemporary Arts Center, Dennis Barrie, and his institution were indicted for exhibiting “pornogra- phy.” Cincinnati is well known for its prudishness. Because of biased statements coming from the judge and the composition of the jury, it was generally assumed that the verdict would go against the defend- ants, It was therefore to everyone’s surprise when the jury declared them “not guilty.” The prosecutor had TA judge of the Federal District Cour ia Los Angeles ruled in June of 1982 that the law was unconstitutional. He also decided that the NEA chairman's veto of grants to four artists was motivated by political consider- ations and was therefore illegal The Bush Administration appealed the

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