Virilio, Baj
Discourse on the horror of art
Enrico Baj and Paul Virilio
Having become useless, not only is art horrified by itself but it also horrifies its audience who no longer understands it, ever since it became a business in the hands of experts.
Afterword by Tiziana Villani
How does an abandoned bottle of gin on the floor of a pavilion of the Venice Biennale attract a small crowd of admirers whispering ecstatic comments? The Italian painter Baj, one of the most outsanding artist of the XX Century, and the French urbanist and dromologue Virilio, question each other on the conditions and the perception of art and of the places that host and shoecase it. The current destiny of art, its evolution, seem to be one of the privileged positions from where to understand the sign of the times, having in fact the art market foretold the new economy and many other virtualities. In the ways by which art is related to, a sort of added value was produced that has become so important as make a serious critique impossible. Critique has become gossip and celebration, while the work of art becomes an icon of itself, devoid of an intrinsic meaning because reduced to a machine for producing pseudo-philosophies, pseudo-aesthetics, pseudo-problems.
Enrico Baj, born in Milan in 1924, takes up painting at the age of fourteen. In his works he always experimented with various techniques: form paint "drippings", to tapestry collages, padding, glass and passementerie, broken and recomposed mirrors, Lego and Meccano assemblages, modifications of kitsch paintings, finally conceiving in 1960 the "generals", obtained from the use of those materials that are most congenial to him (medals, decorations, fringes, gallons etc.) He exhibited in the most important galleries of the world and his works are on display in the most prestigious museums. In 1972 he executed the first of his large scale works: The Funerals of the Anarchist Pinelli (12 x 4 metres) dedicated to the railway worker who "fell" from the fourth floor of Milan's police headquarters in the night of the 15th December 1969. Enrico Baj died in Vergiate on the 16th June 2003.
Paul Virilio (Paris 1932-2018), after studying architecture, becomes president-founder of the group "Architecture Principe" in 1963 and director of the group's journal. From 1968 is professor at the Ecole Spéciale d'Architecture of Paris, becoming its president in 1998. Urbanist and essayist, he is known as a theorist of speed and a specialist of new technologies. Among his works, aside from his collaboration with Baj for Eleuthera, relevant works are: Speed and Politics: an Essay on Dromology (Published in Italian by Multila, 1981), The Aesthetics of Disappearance (Published in Italian by Liguori, 1992), Lo Schermo e l'Oblio [The Screen and Oblivion] (Published in Italian by Anabasi, 1994) and La deriva di un continente: conflitti e territorio nella modernità [The continent's drift: conflicts and territory in Modernity] (Published in Italian by Mimesis 1994)
Enrico Baj and Paul Virilio
Having become useless, not only is art horrified by itself but it also horrifies its audience who no longer understands it, ever since it became a business in the hands of experts.
Afterword by Tiziana Villani
How does an abandoned bottle of gin on the floor of a pavilion of the Venice Biennale attract a small crowd of admirers whispering ecstatic comments? The Italian painter Baj, one of the most outsanding artist of the XX Century, and the French urbanist and dromologue Virilio, question each other on the conditions and the perception of art and of the places that host and shoecase it. The current destiny of art, its evolution, seem to be one of the privileged positions from where to understand the sign of the times, having in fact the art market foretold the new economy and many other virtualities. In the ways by which art is related to, a sort of added value was produced that has become so important as make a serious critique impossible. Critique has become gossip and celebration, while the work of art becomes an icon of itself, devoid of an intrinsic meaning because reduced to a machine for producing pseudo-philosophies, pseudo-aesthetics, pseudo-problems.
Enrico Baj, born in Milan in 1924, takes up painting at the age of fourteen. In his works he always experimented with various techniques: form paint "drippings", to tapestry collages, padding, glass and passementerie, broken and recomposed mirrors, Lego and Meccano assemblages, modifications of kitsch paintings, finally conceiving in 1960 the "generals", obtained from the use of those materials that are most congenial to him (medals, decorations, fringes, gallons etc.) He exhibited in the most important galleries of the world and his works are on display in the most prestigious museums. In 1972 he executed the first of his large scale works: The Funerals of the Anarchist Pinelli (12 x 4 metres) dedicated to the railway worker who "fell" from the fourth floor of Milan's police headquarters in the night of the 15th December 1969. Enrico Baj died in Vergiate on the 16th June 2003.
Paul Virilio (Paris 1932-2018), after studying architecture, becomes president-founder of the group "Architecture Principe" in 1963 and director of the group's journal. From 1968 is professor at the Ecole Spéciale d'Architecture of Paris, becoming its president in 1998. Urbanist and essayist, he is known as a theorist of speed and a specialist of new technologies. Among his works, aside from his collaboration with Baj for Eleuthera, relevant works are: Speed and Politics: an Essay on Dromology (Published in Italian by Multila, 1981), The Aesthetics of Disappearance (Published in Italian by Liguori, 1992), Lo Schermo e l'Oblio [The Screen and Oblivion] (Published in Italian by Anabasi, 1994) and La deriva di un continente: conflitti e territorio nella modernità [The continent's drift: conflicts and territory in Modernity] (Published in Italian by Mimesis 1994)
French and Spanish editions not available