artists its time to save the world!

Σήμερα καθώς πίναμε το μεσημεριανό μας καφέ στην plakaland διάβασα το παρακάτω άρθρο της Financial Times και το βρήκα πολύ ενδιαφέρον...

Σε μία απο τις συναντήσεις των "μεγάλων και ισχυρών" του πλανήτη στο Bellagio της Ιταλίας θα προσκαλέσουν για πρώτη φορα 3 καλλιτέχνες (τα ονόματα τους δεν έχουν ανακοινωθεί ακόμα). Καιρός ήταν να καταλάβουμε οτι για να βρούμε λύσεις πρέπει να ενωθούν μυαλά απο όλες τις κατευθύνσεις και ότι η συνεισφoρά της "ιδιόρρυθμης" σκέψης των καλλιτεχνών αποτελεί ένα σημαντικό κομμάτι. Ειδικά στις μέρες μας που η τέχνη παίζει ρόλο στην εξέλιξη της παγκόσμιας οικονομίας δεν μπορούμε να εθελοτυφλούμε.

soooo....." Let's come together right now.... oh yeah..in this sweet crisis.."

enjoy.....


Can art save the world?

By Peter Aspden

Published: October 11 2008 03:00 | Last updated: October 11 2008 03:00

It could be argued that "Frieze week", the seven days of frenetic activity around London's premier art fair, now one of the mainstays of the cultural calendar, has never taken place at a less opportune moment. The world's financial system is in meltdown, critics will say, and here we are fine-tuning our fiddles among the conceptual jokes and playful surrealism of the contemporary art scene.

The danger is that it will all feel a little, well, decadent. We are used to the idea that art should say something important and weighty about the world in which it is produced. But what do the pranksters and posers of today's jet-fuelled scene tell us about the credit crunch and its grim implications?

Is this not, indeed, part of the problem? Has not the incredible rise in contemporary art prices mirrored the financial hay-making all around that has brought us to the brink of a depression? In the world of the irrationally exuberant, was there anywhere less rational and more exuberant than the contemporary art world?

That is one, rather severe, view. But there is another, which asks: is this not precisely the time to unleash - and harness - every creative talent that can be found? We need unorthodox, radical views to help us find a solution to the current impasse, and London in Frieze week is where they can be found.

That is part of the thinking behind a new initiative by the Rockefeller Foundation, which will announce in London on Wednesday the three artists it has chosen to be its first creative arts fellows.

The artists will be granted a three-month residency at the foundation's centre in Bellagio, Italy, where they will mix with other residents - high-powered figures from the worlds of arts, science and policymaking - and take part in the Bellagio conference, a debate on world issues whose previous participants include luminaries such as Henry Kissinger, Shimon Peres and Joseph Stiglitz.

If ever there were a time to challenge the belief that contemporary art is a hermetically sealed universe whose inhabitants talk to no one but themselves, it is now. The foundation, which since it began in 1913 has distributed some $14bn to thousands of recipients in its mission to "identify and attack at their source the underlying causes of human suffering", is expecting great things. It makes a point of stating that this is "not just another arts prize", and wants "the vibrant and diverse contemporary art scene to impact on other intellectual disciplines in a major way".

Judith Rodin, president of the foundation, says the Frieze Art Fair is the perfect context for the announcement of the three new fellows, who will be mid-career artists chosen from all over the world.

"We think that the challenges of the 21st century require an extraordinary amount of innovation," she told me in a telephone interview.

It is her belief that visual disciplines such as art and design can help uncover these. "We need to stimulate the right side of the brain as well as the left." She says she is uncowed, indeed inspired, by the avant-garde nature of today's art. "We are looking for people to push the envelope. The idea is to mix it all up - artists, policymakers, molecular biologists. Then, creativity begins to soar."

And the timing of the announcement? "At a time of economic turbulence and hardship, our role becomes even more important," she says. "It is our special responsibility to step up when people are suffering."

Autumn 2008 already feels like a dramatic watershed moment in world history - could it mark also the beginning of a shift away from the view of art as little more than a desirable commodity, and back towards its ancient role as a crucible for mankind's most progressive ideas?