VIENNA ART WEEK 2016: Seeking Beauty
THIS IS BEAUTIFUL
At VIENNA ART WEEK 2016 (14–20 November) you will discover “Where loveliness lies ”.
„La vraie beauté est si particulière, si nouvelle, qu’on ne la reconnaît pas pour la beauté.“ Marcel Proust
Is art the practice of discovering beauty where it is least expected? By what criteria is beauty as such defined, and which of these forged the canons of beauty we use today? To what culturally change able conditions is it beholden? Held under the motto “Seeking Beauty,” this year’s VIENNA ART WEEK deals with the ambivalence of beauty. […]
“Too lovely to be true” – a phrase that connects beauty with both truth and illusion.
One need only recall Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1890); the promise of eternal youth through beauty remains one of the most impressive literary motifs of all time. We find a panorama of violations, negative transgressions and adversity in the abuse of beauty for propaganda and power. While the historical avantgarde reacted with rebellion, turning to the abysmal, dark side of beauty, contemporary artists like Marina Abramovic are modifying their own bodies with cosmetic surgery. Does beauty promise happiness? Why is it that the dangers of beauty standardization remain hidden? […]
Beauty, like art, dies with stagnation or stultification of any kind; it demands animation, has to take on a life of its own. Beauty can also come cloaked in the seemingly ugly. The beautiful develops its appeal in the interplay between individual imagination and that of the collective. It is more than pure luxury or a sheer source of enjoyment, goes beyond a mere matter of taste; it happens in dialogue.
The 2016 VIENNA ART WEEK program is an opportunity to do just that. (extract from the VIENNA ART WEEK’s cover article)
by Robert Punkenhofer and Ursula Maria Probst
“Art Must Be Beautiful, Artists Must Be Beautiful.” Marina Abramović
