Performing the Absolute. Marina Abramovic Organizing the Unfinished Business of Arthur Schopenhauer - Critical Essay

Organization Studies, Annual, 2000 by Pierre Guillet de Monthoux

'Das Kunstwerk ist bloss em Erleichterungsmirtel derjenigen Erkenntnis... Das aus dem Kunstiverk die Idee uns leichter entgegentritt, als unmittelbar aus der Natur und der Wirklichkeit, kommet daher, dass der Kiinstler nur die Idee, nicht ,nehr die Wirklichkeit erkannte, in seinem Werk und nur die Idee rein wiederholt hat, sie ausgesondert hat aus der Wirklichkeit, mit Auslassung aller st[ddot{o}]renden Zuf[ddot{o}]lligkeiten. Der K[ddot{u}]nstler l[ddot{a}]sst uns durch seine Augen in die Welt blicken.' (Schopenhauer 1888: 229-230) ['That the Idea comes to us more easily from the work of art than directly from nature and the real world, arises solely from the fact that the artist, who knew only the Idea and no longer the actual, has reproduced in his work the pure Idea, has abstracted it from the actual, omitting all chance features which might distract from it. The artist lets us see the world through his eyes.' (Schopenhauer 1995: 118)]

To modem metaphysics, art is thus a facilitating tool, an Erleichterungsmittel, replacing the direct touch with nature and life. But despite this indirectness, art, in Schopenhauer's view, is still different from media claiming to communicate reality. Of course, artists have to master various art techniques, but technical skills per se do not make them artists. They hardly flatter themselves with the technical ability of objectively transmitting recorded or depicted realities. Artists are not in the business of transmitting information nor of reproducing copies of originals. In this light, the English translation of the German title of Schopenhauer' s book -- The World as Will and Idea -- seems slightly problematic. The usual translation of the German word Vorstellung is 'representation', but this is not satisfactory. A Vorstellung is not a simple rendering of the world. When we remember that Schopenhauer's mother, Johanna, was befriended with the poet-playwright Goethe and that Schopenhauer himself had a pas sion for theatre, this gives us a clue to improving the translation. Instead of the English word Idea, which does not figure in the German title perhaps because Schopenhauer did not want us to think of conceptual cognition, Vorstellung should perhaps be translated into performance. Renaming the book 'The World as Will and Performance' would make us realise that artists, at least those whose art is instrumental in aesthetic metaphysics, have to master more than just the media of traditional art forms such as writing, painting, composing and sculpting. The part of modem art useful to metaphysics is thus the part that makes performances, i.e. that provides metaphysics out of written texts, painted pictures, annoted scores and carved sculptures. It is an important part of modem art and it seems to be more organizational than medial.

In-between Art

Marina rushes in to get some coffee, honey, m[ddot{u}]esli.

'I am doing at least twenty shows a year. I have been living like this for more than twenty years now. First, I did most of the shows in museums and stayed out of the gallery system. Now I have a gallery, and when I get requests, I usually suggest going there with my students. We have been to Ireland, England; all over. When they ask me to do something and I say I want my students to be part, they then usually pay for all the expenses. We did a show "in between" shows in Hanau recently. They gave us all the video equipment for free, for twenty-four hours, while their next show was being prepared. People from Weimar saw it and immediately put us "in between" some of their programmed shows. This way of working fits in well with young students who, like myself once, hate to work in the shadow of some old professor. They have to find their own position "in-between" what has already been established.'