Is the artist necessary for making art today? (Pt.2)

Answers by Sonja Engelhardt, Tobias Roth, Mara Genschel, Tamara Lorenz, Kai Winter, Nikola Richter, Alfons Knogl, Leah Beeferman, Theresa Reusch & Alexander Warhus

 

Artists are necessary at all times.

 

Sonja Engelhardt
http://akaminds.tumblr.com

 


 

Wie man auch befindet, es wäre eine so grundsätzliche Entscheidung, dass sich das Heute und seine Uhrzeit schnell verflüchtigen. Ich würde jederzeit dafür optieren, dass Werkzeugkästen und Produktionsmittel die Herstellung zwar maßgeblich beeinflussen, darin vielleicht sogar die Überhand behalten und durch ihre Logik, ihr Programm einen Plan geradezu und sozusagen selbsttätig durchziehen, aber keinen Anfang machen. Sie setzen keinen Beginn, keine Abweichung, wenn ihre anschließende Ausdauer auch übermenschlich ist; wer dies unternimmt, wird im entsprechenden Rahmen der meerweiten ars, wenn ich recht verstehe, als Künstler bezeichnet; was er bedient, wird unter diesem Titel mitgemeint; Medium, Form, Werkzeug stehen in der Mitte und stellen kein Material, keine Initiative; sie haben auch kein Gedächtnis, vielleicht einen Speicher, wenn es hoch kommt.

 

Tobias Roth

 


 

Is the artist necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the commission necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the commision-critique necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

So is the self-reference also necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

2. Strophe

 

Is the excellent english necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

So is also leo.org necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is self doubt and failure necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

But is also the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

2. Teil / 2. Strophe

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is retelling the joke necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Refrain:

 

Is copy/paste necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the limit of 500 words necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

3. Strophe + Bridge

 

Is the alcohol necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the haunting question necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the right and only answer necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the deadline necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the day after deadline necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the memory of last night necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is knowledge of baroque techniques necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the repetition necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the concept necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the consequence necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Are nine more words necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Refrain:

 

Is copy/paste necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the limit of 500 words necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Wiederholung Refrain (dabei sanftes fade out):

 

Is copy/paste necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Is the limit of 500 words necessary for making art today?

– Ay Ay!

 

Mara Genschel
http://referenzflaeche.com

 


 

Dilemmatische Ekstatik
+
Disparates Relationensystem:
Die Bewegung entsteht durch die Verschiebung der Lagebeziehungen [Analysis Situs):
Is art necessary for making the artist today ?
/
opus operatum = modus operandi ?
≈ Some Such Stage Studies

 

Tamara Lorenz
http://tamaralorenz.de

 


 

Würde ich diese Frage mit “Ja” oder “Nein” beantworten, hätte ich einmal mehr über die Kunst entschieden.

 

Ist es – zumal heutzutage – selbstverständlich, Kunst zu „machen“? Wann „mache“ ich Kunst und wann nicht? Und wer bin ich, wenn ich Kunst „mache“ (und wer, wenn ich mit etwas anderem beschäftigt bin)? Besagt „Künstler“ sein eine Art „Professionalisierung“ im „machen“ von Kunst?

 

Die Antwort auf die Frage, ob der Künstler heutzutage notwendig für das machen von Kunst sei, sagt etwas zur Kunst ohne die Kunst zum Gegenstand der Frage gemacht zu haben.

 

Ist Kunst das, was, wenn es „gemacht“ wird, den „Machenden“ zum Künstler bestimmt? Oder wird etwas zur Kunst, wenn der „Machende“ durch sich selbst (oder durch Dritte) zum Künstler bestimmt ist? Kann Kunst also – um Kunst zu sein – qua definitionem nur durch Künstler „gemacht“ worden sein?

 

Es kommt für die Kunst anscheinend alles darauf an, wie und in welchen Zusammenhängen über sie gesprochen wird. Notwendig für die Kunst scheint, was noch gesagt werden kann über sie.

 

Wie aber verhält sich die Frage nach der Notwendigkeit des Künstlers für die Kunst zur Notwendigkeit von Kunst? Und in welchem Rahmen ließe sich die Frage nach der Notwendigkeit von Kunst heutzutage noch stellen?

 

Es ist nicht unwahrscheinlich, dass die Frage nach der Notwendigkeit des Künstlers für die Kunst implizit bereits eine Antwort auf die Frage nach der Notwendigkeit von Kunst darstellt.

 

Kai Winter

 


 

What would Google say?

 

is the artist necessary for

 

is the artist necessary for making a

 

sorry google doesnt know

 

Nikola Richter
http://www.mikrotext.de

 


 

Doesn’t matter what I believe.
Who is posing the question? Who is asking?
Imagine an artist asking him/ herself or me if he/ she or me is necessary for making art today. Today?
Imagine a recipient (spectator, viewer) wanting to know.
(You do, don’t you?)
If so, is the recipient (spectator, viewer) asking after looking at an artwork? If so, he or she must have had a look at a specific artwork. What kind of artwork?
The question would be then whether an artist would have been necessary to produce the artwork the recipient (spectator, viewer) looked at (today).
Today is Saturday, April 11th.
Imagine an off-voice asking the whole of humanity whether artists (in general) are necessary for producing art (today).
Imagine an artwork by itself wanting to know whether an artist is necessary for producing it (today).
Is this the point?
Isn´t necessary an expression for clearing logical correlations?
Is an artwork material?
If so, do you think material cares about all that?
Is the artist necessary for making an artwork today?
Is this question an artwork?

 

Does it matter what I believe?
Who is asking?

 

Alfons Knogl
http://www.alfonsknogl.de

 


 

If the artists were taken out of making art — or if artists stopped making the art — art would lose so much energy and vitality and desire. You can tell, or feel, when you see art not made by the artist, not desired by the artist. It has different aims, different strategies, and different levels of honesty. It has a different agenda.

 

Of course there are different kinds of artists, and different kinds of art, too. But if an artist’s role is to think up a reason for an artwork to exist and a form in which it should exist, how can a real artwork exist without the thinker? And then, how much of that energy gets lost by transfer if the making of the artwork is handled by someone else?

 

This is not to rule that out as a possibility — most of us have had others help us with technical processes we can’t do ourselves. But I could never pass anything off completely. It would no longer be my work. And I can’t imagine how my artwork could come into being if I wasn’t around to guide it and figure out its logic, see what needs to happen next. I like to think the same is true for most artists, no matter that their aims or what their reasons for making art might be. So yes, I think the artist is necessary for making art today.

 

Leah Beeferman
http://www.leahbeeferman.com

 


 

Some of the principles of success:

 

Turn your liabilities into assets.

 

When someone tells you no, you should hear yes.
Tackling challenges appeal to me because no one had been able to do them before. The only way to make the possible possible is to try the impossible.

 

Never follow the crowd. Go where it´s empty.
People apply this kind of common sense all the time, and yet they forget when it comes to their careers. It´s easier to stand out when you aim straight for the top.

 

No matter what you do in life, selling is part of it.
Achieving my goal of becoming Mr. Olympia was not enough. I had to make people aware there was such a thing as a competition for the most muscular man in the world. I had to make them aware of what training does, besides creating a muscular body – this is about selling.

 

Change takes big balls.

 

Don´t overthink.
If you think all the time, the mind cannot relax. A boxer brings a huge amount of knowledge to the ring – when to duck, punch, counter, dance back, block. But if he were to think about any of this when a punch comes, it would be over. He has to use what he knows in a tenth of a second. When you are not confident of your decision-making process, it will slow you down. The key thing is to let both the mind and the body float – turning off your mind is an art.

 

Forget plan B.
If there is no plan B, then plan A has to work.

 

Reps, reps, reps.
Whether you´re doing a bicep curl in a chilly gym or talking to world leaders, there are no shortcuts – everything is reps, reps, reps.

 

Take care of your body and mind.
I realized that the mind is a muscle and we should train it too. So I was determined to train my brain and get smart. I became like a sponge, absorbing everything around me. The world became my universitiy, I developed such a need to learn and read and take it all in.

 

Stay hungry.
Don´t rest on your laurels. Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen and to be heard and to have an effect – We should all stay hungry!

 

(Inspired by A. S.´s Rules, 2012)

 

Theresa Reusch & Alexander Warhus

http://theresareusch.de
http://www.warhusrittershaus.de

 


 

View the first set of answers

http://www.covertext.org/texts/is-the-artist-necessary-for-making-art-today-pt-1

 

View the original editorial invitation

http://www.covertext.org/news/editorial-is-the-artist-necessary-for-making-art-today