THE LAW OF CAPITAL: HISTORIES OF OPPRESSION
Ivan Jurica: THE VERBAL EXTENSION AS THE MEANING OF AN IMAGE
In my present work, I will present two cases.
THE FIRST CASE
1984: MARTIN KIPPENBERGER: Ich kann beim besten Willen kein Hakenkreuz erkennen!
By my best Will, I can’t see any Swastika!
In 1984, the “Hetzlerboy” Martin Kippenberger painted an abstract painting: a spatial structure of red-white-yellow-and-black bars with angular forms. At first glance, nothing special occurs in the perception – a painting alluding to cubist forms, questioning the formal solution of its spatial construction. Indeed, the title, the small verbal extension of the painting, produces a crucial modification in its perception: “Ich kann beim besten Willen kein Hakenkreuz erkennen” (“By my best Will, I can’t see any Swastika!”). Despite the use of the “I” in the title, the phrase is obviously attributed to a fictitious viewer standing in front of the painting, encouraging the actual viewers to search for the swastikas (though as the title says, there is no fear that the viewer will find one) in the picture. Nevertheless, the word “Swastika” in the title turns a harmless abstract painting into a political provocation. Art historians – the western art historians – interpreted the work as a serious debate on the process of repression within recent German (art) history, where, “by the best will”, swastikas are not desired to be seen and are therefore made invisible. At the same time, art critics accused Kippenberger of refusing to adopt a serious political position, remaining appositely vague. But what did his “a taboo breaking rhetoric” actually do? It gave a political meaning to the painting which, in the way it was painted, appeared fully divorced from any socio-political questions. In the medium of painting in its formal sense, it was a mediocre painting that, through a cynical gesture – turning the medium, through its title, against itself – received a meaning. The abstract painting experienced its extension only in the language and through the language.
2009: When I think about the processes that are carried on by capitalism within contemporary art, about the art market regulating the potentiality of art, the western art institutions erasing radical positions from art history and more and more expelling histories of art which are not coming from the first capitalist world from the so-called history of contemporary art, I can state:
2009: IVAN JURICA: Ich kann beim besten Willen Hakenkreuze erkennen!
By my best Will, I can see Swastikas!
THE SECOND CASE
1997: SANJA IVEKOVIĆ: GEN XX: DRAGICA KONČAR
“Charged with anti-fascist activities. Tortured and executed in Zagreb in 1942. Died at the age of 27.”
In 1997, the feminist artist Sanja Iveković decided to challenge the collective amnesia and erasure of history. In her project “GEN XX,” which she published in Croatian magazines, fashion photographs of female models branded with names and surnames of actual historical anti-fascist national heroines were displayed. In the added text near each work from “GEN XX,” we read:
“Dragica Končar. Charged with anti-fascist activities. Tortured and executed in Zagreb in 1942. Died at the age of 27” or
“Ljubica Gerovac. Charged with anti-fascist activities. Committed suicide while being arrested. Died at the age of 22.”
These heroines died because of their anti-fascist positions and activities. They were arrested, tortured and murdered by the Croat Fascist Ustasha regime during WWII. The more watchful eye of the viewer will be irritated by the discrepancy between the glamorous, eroticised photograph and the dry, documentary text surrounding it. Some will even feel indignation in terms of the sense of the “revival” of characters from the anti-fascist movement of WWII. Iveković counted on a wide range of reactions, including the one by the fashion company Chanel, which interpreted this artistic intervention as designer pilfering in terms of advertising products of the company “Končar.” Iveković positioned herself against collective amnesia. She didn’t want to accept the silencing of the female and Eastern European anti-fascist history. The fear of oblivion is one of the most powerful instigators of her work. In these terms, the work “GEN XX” is not only connected to the problems of women, but these “death certificates” (as named by Ana Peraica) also testify to the erasure of anti-fascist heroes and heroines from the present Hegemonic history and art history. The use of the fashionable image together with the name might for a moment recall the heroines and their role within the erased socialist past. But the junction between the anonymous consumable image and the name without a past turns the advertisement into a death certificate. A certificate of erasures and suppressions.
2009: Because of these processes of erasure and exclusion in all spheres, because of the radical critical positions and concepts that are missing in the history and the art history, in the knowledge production and education, I can state – and this uttering is my artwork:
2009: IVAN JURICA: Ich kann beim besten Willen überall Hakenkreuze erkennen!
By my best Will, I can see Swastikas everywhere!
Ivan Jurica is an artist based in Vienna and Bratislava. His work is specifically connected with analysis of Eastern European Art.
THE FIRST CASE
1984: MARTIN KIPPENBERGER: Ich kann beim besten Willen kein Hakenkreuz erkennen!
By my best Will, I can’t see any Swastika!
In 1984, the “Hetzlerboy” Martin Kippenberger painted an abstract painting: a spatial structure of red-white-yellow-and-black bars with angular forms. At first glance, nothing special occurs in the perception – a painting alluding to cubist forms, questioning the formal solution of its spatial construction. Indeed, the title, the small verbal extension of the painting, produces a crucial modification in its perception: “Ich kann beim besten Willen kein Hakenkreuz erkennen” (“By my best Will, I can’t see any Swastika!”). Despite the use of the “I” in the title, the phrase is obviously attributed to a fictitious viewer standing in front of the painting, encouraging the actual viewers to search for the swastikas (though as the title says, there is no fear that the viewer will find one) in the picture. Nevertheless, the word “Swastika” in the title turns a harmless abstract painting into a political provocation. Art historians – the western art historians – interpreted the work as a serious debate on the process of repression within recent German (art) history, where, “by the best will”, swastikas are not desired to be seen and are therefore made invisible. At the same time, art critics accused Kippenberger of refusing to adopt a serious political position, remaining appositely vague. But what did his “a taboo breaking rhetoric” actually do? It gave a political meaning to the painting which, in the way it was painted, appeared fully divorced from any socio-political questions. In the medium of painting in its formal sense, it was a mediocre painting that, through a cynical gesture – turning the medium, through its title, against itself – received a meaning. The abstract painting experienced its extension only in the language and through the language.
2009: When I think about the processes that are carried on by capitalism within contemporary art, about the art market regulating the potentiality of art, the western art institutions erasing radical positions from art history and more and more expelling histories of art which are not coming from the first capitalist world from the so-called history of contemporary art, I can state:
2009: IVAN JURICA: Ich kann beim besten Willen Hakenkreuze erkennen!
By my best Will, I can see Swastikas!
THE SECOND CASE
1997: SANJA IVEKOVIĆ: GEN XX: DRAGICA KONČAR
“Charged with anti-fascist activities. Tortured and executed in Zagreb in 1942. Died at the age of 27.”
In 1997, the feminist artist Sanja Iveković decided to challenge the collective amnesia and erasure of history. In her project “GEN XX,” which she published in Croatian magazines, fashion photographs of female models branded with names and surnames of actual historical anti-fascist national heroines were displayed. In the added text near each work from “GEN XX,” we read:
“Dragica Končar. Charged with anti-fascist activities. Tortured and executed in Zagreb in 1942. Died at the age of 27” or
“Ljubica Gerovac. Charged with anti-fascist activities. Committed suicide while being arrested. Died at the age of 22.”
These heroines died because of their anti-fascist positions and activities. They were arrested, tortured and murdered by the Croat Fascist Ustasha regime during WWII. The more watchful eye of the viewer will be irritated by the discrepancy between the glamorous, eroticised photograph and the dry, documentary text surrounding it. Some will even feel indignation in terms of the sense of the “revival” of characters from the anti-fascist movement of WWII. Iveković counted on a wide range of reactions, including the one by the fashion company Chanel, which interpreted this artistic intervention as designer pilfering in terms of advertising products of the company “Končar.” Iveković positioned herself against collective amnesia. She didn’t want to accept the silencing of the female and Eastern European anti-fascist history. The fear of oblivion is one of the most powerful instigators of her work. In these terms, the work “GEN XX” is not only connected to the problems of women, but these “death certificates” (as named by Ana Peraica) also testify to the erasure of anti-fascist heroes and heroines from the present Hegemonic history and art history. The use of the fashionable image together with the name might for a moment recall the heroines and their role within the erased socialist past. But the junction between the anonymous consumable image and the name without a past turns the advertisement into a death certificate. A certificate of erasures and suppressions.
2009: Because of these processes of erasure and exclusion in all spheres, because of the radical critical positions and concepts that are missing in the history and the art history, in the knowledge production and education, I can state – and this uttering is my artwork:
2009: IVAN JURICA: Ich kann beim besten Willen überall Hakenkreuze erkennen!
By my best Will, I can see Swastikas everywhere!
Ivan Jurica is an artist based in Vienna and Bratislava. His work is specifically connected with analysis of Eastern European Art.
