old statment/new statment/futer statment

[Adel Samara]

For me art is not an act that makes a difference neither a revolution. It’s not a solution, it does not even point to the problem.
Artists are no elite or avant -gardes, even if they think they are.
Art is not politics and artists are not politicians, therefore art has no nationality it is rather an act of so many individuals in the same space, same field. Even when some art works use nationalism as a concept or a subject, only the structure, form and purpose are the elements that define art works.

We can find a banker or a dentist -for example- who loves painting or taking photos, but that doesn’t make an artist out of him… you see…. art is a profession itself; therefore raw art is no art for me , not even children drawings… but of course children can always draw and dentists can still write poetry. After all art is a conscious behaviour even when it uses subconscious as source of creativity, but psychology, sociology, politic and even commerce can use it as well.( “subconscious” overall there is no such thing, one more dead try to explain our illusion in cods) Again I am talking formalism and nothing new.

For me art is a game to play and I enjoy spending time playing it... that is similar to the games we use to play as we were kids, except; as adults the game gets more complicated and exciting and we become aware of what we are doing as artists .art becomes a part of our future, and above all, the question of existence and death that appears to us- not as artists but as human, all that change the game bases from pleasure and entertainment to a magic tool that might answer such heavy questions…
But it doesn’t, as I know that life is somewhere else.
pleasure and entertainment in art gets me back to the game; The game of minds dealing with facts and pointing to them in an indirect way that adds to them; vainness and mystery in one hand and that shows of my skills as a member of the game in the other hand.
It’s the game of dealing with facts as multiple realities which are no reality at all then the game becomes the illusion of illusion but not a painting of a painting.
It is absurd and yes I am waiting for Godo.


EXAMPLE 1

The Closet

It’s a closet
Not just any closet, it’s a particular, unique, and very special one.
The closet travels around in wide world trip, or maybe still in one specific point.
Its full of matters: officers uniform, under wares, saxes- with or with no halls, new leather jacket that will take a place in a very special meeting…or not…
In one of its dark drawers there is a small box. The box is full of memories; special objects, little figures from childhood, photos and few gifts from very special people…
But the box can be simply full of bills
The closet is made of wood, walnuts wood of course… well it also can be plastic

It’s the closet of dreams, secrets, hidden places, memories and illusions.
The closet itself become an illusion, even before it left the carpenter

The keys are lost
Quite a long time ago
Now it’s locked and will never be open again
Or it might be open and will never be locked no more

It have neither heart to love, eyes to see nor ears to hear
There is no blood running in its vanes
The vanes are dry
The closet is dead…. But of course it’s only a closet
0r maybe it isn’t

[soudade kaadan]

i didnt mean by right , as rules, but that what i could say in my bad english :). i mean when u c here in syria the quantitiy of artist work that u can't even wach and no one likes, u would understand me. i ment by right sincere and creative.

[Salina Abaza]

yeah I read it when you first posted it, I totally agree with that article

[Jan Ackenhausen]

Maybe some more general clues are in the text From Object to Concrete Intervention;
"The understanding of art changes very slowly. The work character of art was already being questioned one hundred years ago. Since then artists have attempted to perform functions that go far beyond the production of objects."

I posted the entire text here.

[Salina Abaza]

Few months have passed and I have changed my point of viewS towards art and "artisim", I am closer to your article now but still what I disagreed with in our early sessions, exists.

For me, our core disagreement was/is that I consider everything as art, it's away for me to liberate my self from the trouble of definitions and empty analysis over what is art and what is not. Anyway, catching from your point where art is a conscious process, you disregard the importance of subconsciousness from the artistic production, by that, you actually cancel great people, and great schools.. Starting with Mozart and Chopin who either started early or ended deaf, and ending with Surrealism that depended on subconsciousness as a main generator of production, this cancellation is approved by you when you frame art to academic practice, and by this also, you disregard the spontaneity of most modern arts that along with the deep content, depend on spontaneous mechanisms.

Moreover, if art is not meant to point out an existing problem, what would be its main motivation?! what would be the generator for anyone to do anything? The reasons may vary, and like mentioned in that exact session, sometimes not having a reason it self is a reason, but to cancel the importance of such "reasoning" includes ignoring the sequence of any artistic behavior, of any behavior actually if you insist that not anything is artistic!
However, I totally agree that art is not supposed to find the solution, it's not supposed to be the solution, and it is not definitely the solution.

Soudade you said "Even you do it right or change your profession", what is right in art? and who decides it?

[soudade kaadan]

You don't know how much I agree with what you said! I always say that art is like any job you do. Even you do it right or change your profession. And there's no need if you did a good job to loose contact with reality or to be arrogant or to think your self a God elite. It's like a carpenter who makes a good table that we use. He will not be surprised if he did a good job, since it's his job!
Even the idea of closet, the words you said, actually it was the hero of my film diploma in university. And the question: is it alive or not, is something I asked my self a lot in my film and my life. You know now, why I laugh a lot when I read your statement. I don't know if it becoz we studies in the same institute, or it's living here, in Damascus, since you should be a little bit crazy to continue to do what we are doing here.