Texte
Text
A BRIDLE OF SUBSERVIENCE, IRONY TOWARDS SPECTACLE : VINCENT TANGUY
March, 2017
By Choi Yoon-Jung
Text part of the residency at Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Seoul (KR)
Existent individuals and non-existent society, state, nationality, signals, norms, order. While these non-existent things are mere promises favorable to survival, symbolic systems, they act as a mechanism to limit the behavior and consciousness (awareness) of individuals. Only “blind acceptance” is “good” for groups, and the ideology and power driven by it absolutely serve to strengthen 'hierarchy' and maintain social systems. "Differentiation and separation" from the periphery is the key task, and social alienation is simply treated as a by-product. So, individuals who are dependent on groups are erasable. What is not real is just a symbol. It is “fiction” and “imagination,” but may take a firm grip on a place of power. To uncover a network of symbolic fiction is the first point for interpreting Vincent Tanguy's works.
As an ironical observer, he is merely immersed in a structurally dystopic situation where we are submissive to the non-existent (social system, order, etc.) knowingly or unknowingly. Summer 99 (1999) presents his awareness in this way. “Pinault” printed on a soccer shirt is the name of a soccer club owner and also a famous-art-collector in France. Here, Pinault is a metaphor symbolizing the social system that has been closely related to the artist from the past. It reveals the 'power' within the capitalist sports and artistic system. This work is also contextually linked to AFK (2017), which he has been performing since 2014. It equates the “social system” that does not really exist to a virtual game in the cyber world, simply by leading us there. The performer imitates a game character who cannot decide upon a direction as though some error has occurred and wanders around the edges making gestures. The performer is like an uncontrollable and helpless individual isolated in the system. Although modern science has made innovative contributions to the human struggle against nature, social alienation caused by the use of technologies has very EFFECTIVELY relegated “individuals” that exist as active subjects to thoroughly passive objects.
On the other hand, General synesthesia (2017) is his new work on Korea’s social system based on what he observed roaming around Seoul, where the masses comply with too many signs and signaling systems. Signals and symbolized colors have already become languages that have affected consciousness in our brain. His Seoul travelogue is coldly spoken by Naver’s translator text-to-speech, and the symbolized colors that he discovered in Korea blink on the screen according to the nuance of each word (negative, positive, neutral, etc.). It appears as if cognitive and visual stimuli touched the collective typicality that is systematically inherent and invisibly formed in our consciousness. But this work makes me carefully predict that he will not continue to remain a mere ironical observer in his future works. As seen in Pareto's Law (2013), he has always tried to add meaning to a vague 80% rather than a fixed top 20%. This gives room for interpretation that he may believe the class treated as a vague 80% in the social system is the very group that has the capability for practical struggle and the potential for subversion. Through this work, General Synesthesia, he starts talking in earnest about the social system that controls our consciousness.
The second point for interpreting his works is 'anachronism'. Ruins of Modern Times (2017) shows unfinished vertically-stretched bridge girders over the Han River, which flows gently beyond. The girders seem ancient and spectacular monumental structures. It looks as if they were not in a secular world, floating in eternal time even at a construction site. Instead, we find ourselves immersed in an “anachronic imagination” that discovers ancient icons or desires ancient times in the ruins of modern times. Throughout the interview, we talked about anachronism, which is a word that is used to treat an act or an object as something old. But I concluded during the interview that it is probably more appropriate to use this word as a catalyst to strengthen the state of “imbalanced” cognitive dissonance caused by placing the old thing in the “current” place and time. Among his past works, Big Döners (2016) is about the kebab (döner), which represents the virtue of the small traditional society where a common fate is shared by the bonding of different groups. The content of the work is also anachronism: Kebab, expressed as a totem in the work, is not just a symbol kept in one society but a food seen all over the world. It was a very interesting work. As I got to its meaning, I could picture a totem realizing individual-based cosmopolitanism beyond its original group, taking up the cause of globalization.
Of course, the cause of globalization may also be a language trapped in the spectacular society of capitalism. But at that point where the captured camel that was once submissive becomes an angry lion, anachronism may serve the ideal to escape the bridle of subservience. Again, the spectacle of 'anachronism' and 'cognitive dissonance' can have the effect of spotting the actual conditions of oppression that exist in reality. The images that the artist captured as an ironical observer are located at the point where he tries to discover the typicality of a society and mediate thoughts about the basis of its social system by uncovering odd structures, and anachronic icons or spectacle. Suddenly, something crosses my mind. Although my life is also subject to relocation by the social system, if there is a crack of “anachronic” chance in my daily life and the possibility of living as a “thinker” to reflect on the irony of this society of spectacle, what difference would it make?
Texte
Text
A BRIDLE OF SUBSERVIENCE, IRONY TOWARDS SPECTACLE : VINCENT TANGUY
March, 2017
By Choi Yoon-Jung
Text part of the residency at Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Seoul (KR)
Existent individuals and non-existent society, state, nationality, signals, norms, order. While these non-existent things are mere promises favorable to survival, symbolic systems, they act as a mechanism to limit the behavior and consciousness (awareness) of individuals. Only “blind acceptance” is “good” for groups, and the ideology and power driven by it absolutely serve to strengthen 'hierarchy' and maintain social systems. "Differentiation and separation" from the periphery is the key task, and social alienation is simply treated as a by-product. So, individuals who are dependent on groups are erasable. What is not real is just a symbol. It is “fiction” and “imagination,” but may take a firm grip on a place of power. To uncover a network of symbolic fiction is the first point for interpreting Vincent Tanguy's works.
As an ironical observer, he is merely immersed in a structurally dystopic situation where we are submissive to the non-existent (social system, order, etc.) knowingly or unknowingly. Summer 99 (1999) presents his awareness in this way. “Pinault” printed on a soccer shirt is the name of a soccer club owner and also a famous-art-collector in France. Here, Pinault is a metaphor symbolizing the social system that has been closely related to the artist from the past. It reveals the 'power' within the capitalist sports and artistic system. This work is also contextually linked to AFK (2017), which he has been performing since 2014. It equates the “social system” that does not really exist to a virtual game in the cyber world, simply by leading us there. The performer imitates a game character who cannot decide upon a direction as though some error has occurred and wanders around the edges making gestures. The performer is like an uncontrollable and helpless individual isolated in the system. Although modern science has made innovative contributions to the human struggle against nature, social alienation caused by the use of technologies has very EFFECTIVELY relegated “individuals” that exist as active subjects to thoroughly passive objects.
On the other hand, General synesthesia (2017) is his new work on Korea’s social system based on what he observed roaming around Seoul, where the masses comply with too many signs and signaling systems. Signals and symbolized colors have already become languages that have affected consciousness in our brain. His Seoul travelogue is coldly spoken by Naver’s translator text-to-speech, and the symbolized colors that he discovered in Korea blink on the screen according to the nuance of each word (negative, positive, neutral, etc.). It appears as if cognitive and visual stimuli touched the collective typicality that is systematically inherent and invisibly formed in our consciousness. But this work makes me carefully predict that he will not continue to remain a mere ironical observer in his future works. As seen in Pareto's Law (2013), he has always tried to add meaning to a vague 80% rather than a fixed top 20%. This gives room for interpretation that he may believe the class treated as a vague 80% in the social system is the very group that has the capability for practical struggle and the potential for subversion. Through this work, General Synesthesia, he starts talking in earnest about the social system that controls our consciousness.
The second point for interpreting his works is 'anachronism'. Ruins of Modern Times (2017) shows unfinished vertically-stretched bridge girders over the Han River, which flows gently beyond. The girders seem ancient and spectacular monumental structures. It looks as if they were not in a secular world, floating in eternal time even at a construction site. Instead, we find ourselves immersed in an “anachronic imagination” that discovers ancient icons or desires ancient times in the ruins of modern times. Throughout the interview, we talked about anachronism, which is a word that is used to treat an act or an object as something old. But I concluded during the interview that it is probably more appropriate to use this word as a catalyst to strengthen the state of “imbalanced” cognitive dissonance caused by placing the old thing in the “current” place and time. Among his past works, Big Döners (2016) is about the kebab (döner), which represents the virtue of the small traditional society where a common fate is shared by the bonding of different groups. The content of the work is also anachronism: Kebab, expressed as a totem in the work, is not just a symbol kept in one society but a food seen all over the world. It was a very interesting work. As I got to its meaning, I could picture a totem realizing individual-based cosmopolitanism beyond its original group, taking up the cause of globalization.
Of course, the cause of globalization may also be a language trapped in the spectacular society of capitalism. But at that point where the captured camel that was once submissive becomes an angry lion, anachronism may serve the ideal to escape the bridle of subservience. Again, the spectacle of 'anachronism' and 'cognitive dissonance' can have the effect of spotting the actual conditions of oppression that exist in reality. The images that the artist captured as an ironical observer are located at the point where he tries to discover the typicality of a society and mediate thoughts about the basis of its social system by uncovering odd structures, and anachronic icons or spectacle. Suddenly, something crosses my mind. Although my life is also subject to relocation by the social system, if there is a crack of “anachronic” chance in my daily life and the possibility of living as a “thinker” to reflect on the irony of this society of spectacle, what difference would it make?