[iDC] Art, Lifestyle & Globalisation Questions

[J Rabie]

Le 2 avr. 07, à 18:02, Christiane Robbins a écrit :

> Dear Joe -
>
> Could you please elaborate on your statement:
>
> "We must be allowed to produce value, but our irrepressible desire to 
> express ourselves must be kept strictly under control."
>
> Thanks -
>
> Chris


Some artists have sufficient market value so that they can produce 
whatever they like, there are always buyers. They are totally 
unfettered. Picasso is the arch example, I suppose.

But most artists work within a system where they depend on a patron, or 
a gallery, or a boss - for example, a Hollywood director employed by a 
studio... they will be given economic leeway insofar as what they are 
portraying or the message they are transmitting does not become 
counterproductive vis-a-vis the latters' wallets. Or the ambient 
morality, or whatever, which would have the same effect on cashflow. 
The example comes to mind how directors in former times used great 
ingenuity to deal with then taboo issues, such as homosexuality.

I am personally, at the moment, living this in an extreme way, but in a 
situation which has nothing to do with money, but with political 
control. I am part of a "creative & rebel" collective (also called "les 
empêcheurs de tourner en carré") working on José Bové's French 
presidential election campagne. The relations between us and the 
organisational elite ("les notables") are extremely tense, they are 
doing whatever they can to hamper any independent artistic expression, 
both by using delaying tactics - refusing to decide on budgets - and by 
having people work, and then suddenly going and subcontracting to 
outside professionals, effectively sidelining our group.

Joe.