Simona Vidmar
HOW TO GET FROM BEUYS'S "SOCIAL SCULPTURE« TO POGGI'S "SOCIAL
AESTHETICS" AND BACK TO BEUYS AGAIN
Ever since the 60s the objects, installations, actions and manifestos
of Pino Poggi have made us contemplate on the never ending phenomenon
of Joseph Buys as well as on the concept of art, which has been gaining
new dimensions.
"Der erweiterte Kunstbegriff"
Beuys's contemplation on sculpture is not an academic one. He concerns
himself with form. He believed that the main problem of art is that
of the most appropriate form. Through centuries art has searched for
and created the most sublime, the richest and the most beautiful objects
intended for people to enjoy, to admire, to make people want them and
to live with them. That is why it could be said that art is the discipline
which is able to transfer the question of the most appropriate form
to other social fields. It does not matter whether we work with metal,
wood or social components - the main idea always remains the same.
In his programme essay from 1972 Beuys invited artists to transform
the basic concepts of art, art actions and sculpture: " Only if
the definition of art radically expanded art and all the activities
connected with it, art could be proven the only evolutionary and revolutionary
force at the moment. Only art is capable of disclosing repressive effects
of a senile social system; disclosing with the intention of forming
a SOCIAL ORGANISM AS A WORK OF ART. This social sculpture or social
architecture - the most modern branch of art - will be effective only
if all living beings are the creators, sculptors or architects of the
social organism. Only a presumption which sees art revolutionized to
such an extent could change art into a politically productive force,
powerful enough to track down every individual and to make history."[1]
The first and the most important step in the realization of the social
sculpture and realization of social living as a work of art is the "revolution
of concepts",[2] such as the concept of art and some basic concepts
about society. A new quality in thinking and functioning will make the
transformation of art from an aesthetic experience to socially- evolutionary
usage possible. And all individuals should be hold responsible in the
process - every single activity, such as thinking, talking, forming
ideas, working… influences, changes and transforms the society of people.
This axiom cannot be disputed, every single creative movement creates
forms and is a part of the social sculpture. Therefore this could be
regarded as sculpture as well. Art as such is lately regarded as a synonym
for a person's ability to work. Beuys points out to the society, which
can be viewed as a surrogate for a work of art with its physical appearance,
presence, warmth and energy.
So what is the meaning of a materialized sculpture and of Beuys's works,
like a cyber installation "Honigpumpe am Arbeitsplatz", (1974-77),
a contemplating action "I Love America and America Loves Me",
(1974) or an ecologically-interactive project "7000 Oaks",
(1982)? A materialized sculpture or an art action functions as a model
or as a conductor for the invisible sculptural qualities of thinking.
Namely, the materialized energy of thinking is capable of arousing (very
efficiently) perceptional and thinking abilities in other people. With
his model "the expanded concept of art - a social sculpture - a
personal responsibility" Beuys showed how to rediscover art as
a means of a social and political power.
"The Social Aesthetics"
In his manifesto from 1965/66 Pino Poggi briefly presented the goals
and the principles of his work and announced a new branch of art Arte
Utile, the so called applied art. " Arte Utile carries a message.
(…) An action relating and dealing with the current events is the most
efficient one. Arte Utile is an impulse for a society's renovation."[3]
There are three main problems in Poggi's art: the problem of works
of art/actions being informative enough; the problem of works of art
being up-to-date or the problem of mutual dependency between a social
situation and a social action; the problem of reforming the concept
of art and the facts connected to it.
In the 70s, in his second manifesto, he still concerned himself with
the applied art and added in a somehow poetic way: "An artist is
responsible for the society, which is a resonant place for his art.
An artist longing for a dialogue with the society needs aesthetics capable
of such a communication - this is a SOCIAL AESTHETICS."[4] The
concept of social aesthetics as a new branch of art was mentioned here
for the first time.
What in fact is social aesthetics? How does Poggi deal with those earlier
mentioned problems?
All branches of art are based on aesthetics - whether we talk about
sculpture, painting, poetry, music, or architecture…[5] And it was aesthetics
that has kept the communication with our environment alive through the
centuries. Simple, one way exchange of the ideas concerning beautiful:
creation - reception - transformation. That is why Poggi feels that
aesthetics is the main problem in the process of transformation, it
is a concept which outlives all the metamorphoses of its creation. The
things that stay variable are the character of art, the manner of perception
and the power of transformation.
Poggi's demands and conditions are once again loud and clear. Art which
is capable to communicate with a society - "social aesthetics"
- is the art of action, of interaction and of interactive installation.
Actual up-to-date problems which are always due to the inadequate information
or manipulation with information by the media can always be solved with
an actual work such as protests or pedagogical research …[6] The involvement
of spectatators can sometimes be crucial - like in AU-action - or sometimes
it is the wanted contemplative characteristic of a work that is essential
- the installation "Everything is Different Without The Blueness
of the Sky", for example - but above all, the involvement of spectators
remains the central and the wanted manner of art perception. A consecutive
dynamics and up-to-dateness make a work of art more powerful in expressing
itself and this creates the wanted possibilities for the transformation
of recipients.
What Pino Poggi strives for is a selected and oriented information,
socially obligated and in a form of an aesthetic message to become a
common art practice. A practice that would be able to shake the characteristics
of social systems from the fundations. It would be interesting to start
with the concept of art.
The "social sculpture" and/or the "social aesthetics"
- the branches of art powerful as an evolutionary and a revolutionary
force.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Tisdall, Caroline: Joseph Beuys, London 1979
[2] Harlan/Rappmann/Schata: Soziale Plastik, Materialien zu Joseph
Beuys, Aschberg 1976
[3] Pino Poggi, Manifest Arte Utile I, 1965/66
[4] Pino Poggi, Manifest Arte Utile II, 1976
[5] To enumerate only some of many fields of Poggi's work.
[6] Relating to Poggi's protest against pollution, for a "green"
Munich in 1977 and to his pedagogical research named "Biscuit",
presented at Biennial in Venice, 1970.
gor
