Benoit Maire,
"New Idealism"
Saturday 28th
May 2005, 7pm
Nash Room, ICA
London
FREE.
"...the master
narrative of the history of art…is that there is an era of imitation,
followed by an era of ideology, followed by our post-historical era in
which, with qualification, anything goes.
. . .In our
narrative, at first only mimesis [imitation] was art, then several
things were art but each tried to extinguish its competitors, and then,
finally, it became apparent that there were no stylistic or
philosophical constraints. There is no special way works of art have to
be. And that is the present and, I should say, the final moment in the
master narrative. It is the end of the story" Arthur C. Danto, After the
End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History, 1997
Benoit Maire
will be creating the context of ideas and affects based on Danto's
thoughts in a visual/non visual and emotive context of a theoretical
fiction on the ideas surrounding the ideal. He will create a filmic
platform titled "what is an ideal institution?" creating a theoretical
fiction as a response rather than an answer to the question "what should
be happening at the ICA?"
Maire has
produced a manifesto, which forms the basis for this conference and will
act as a pretext to his piece "New idealism". The conference will be
presented by a man deceased, invited by Maire to discuss post-historic
concepts of postmodernism, aiming to explain the importance of idealism
in the new art and acting as an investigation on new forms of art by
making art.
What is
philosophy as art? Joseph Kosuth said, "Traditional philosophy, almost
by definition, has concerned itself with the unsaid" (Joseph Kosuth, Art
after Philosophy and After: Collected writings 1966-1990, 1991); while
there is no question that the affect or stimulus is important in the
disputes surrounding aesthetics. Pretending to make an aesthetic
through words,
Maire will present a text that is concerned with the desire of
understanding. The desire to catch something, an interpretation that we
all strive for in the context of the institution.
Benoit Maire's
work is the philosophy, which encourages one to feel through the affect
of trying to explain concepts of art, which cannot be fully understood
within our time. Maire reflects on our desire to understand the object
of art and the mind of it's creator, while also referring to our attempt
at understanding through discourse, which often takes place in the form
of the conference within the spaces of the institution. Philosophy is
not real, but the effect of philosophy is made real by the conference as
Philosophy as art after philosophy after art.
Previous
exhibitions include his solo show Flat Screen' S Tragedy at Gallery
Athlético Cortex, Bordeaux, 2004, while Maire has also taken part in
several group shows including Gene therapy, Nod, Prague, 2005 and
Appearances are often misleading, CapcMusée, Bordeaux, 2004. Previous
conferences include the signifying monkey at CapcMusée, 2005 and ethical
of the phantoms, jet FM, Nantes, 2004
For more
information contact I.D.E.A.London on 0796-752 6670/
idealondon@gold.ac.uk
