I bought the new Frieze last week on Religion and Spirituality. I'm not through it yet, but I got lost into the interview with Simon Critchley, chair and professor at The New School for Social Research. Faith for the Faithless is the title of his forthcoming book, and he poses some questions I've been thinking about. While finishing up my long-term project about a religious order, I have been questioning both their choices and my own in terms of our values, faith, belief in a sustaining a practice. The question of what you have faith in, is what it comes down to. A structure, community, your ideas or processes, a ritual. This is written about in the above issue, in an art context, by Critchley. He talks about artistic practice and says "faith is something that comes out of this process", so "What sense can we make of collaboration as an artistic practice?"
"Artistically and politically, the avant-garde has always been concerned with figuring ideas of the group based around a kind of faith" he says. "The question that religion allows us to think is the question of human commonality- of being together." So your place in it is one to consider. How you choose to deal with people, the political structure, an artistic process, or involvement in systems, communities. "It's about wanting a religion without God, where religion is understood as a form of association". Critchley refers the art world as a "set of beliefs". "What happens when rituals that provide comfort are undermined or broken down systematically?"
So quickly these thoughts have been taken in from this interview, but I think it's a valid conversation to have with others, and to read about.
The interview is here: http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/a-kind-of-faith/
Artur Zmijewski came to mind after I read this to, as his art practice is a willing participation in a discussion of the system- art, political, "set of beliefs". If he intervenes, or merely observes, his work is powerful. Yes, he's coming from a specific political place, but he's not afraid to believe in something, then to travel outside of it and invite others to make similar gestures or contribute to a dialogue. In reading his recent list of questions (currently posted to artists for the upcoming Berlin Biennale open call) it only reminds me of his aims.
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Does contemporary art have any visible social impact?
Can the effects of an artist's work be seen and verified?
Does art have significance- besides serving as a whipping boy for various populists?
Is it possible to engage in a discussion with art- and is it worth doing so?
Most of all- why are questions of this kind viewed as a blow against the very essence of art?
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These are just a few things to work out for the new year.
