what is art?
From the glossary of Relational Aesthetics, Nicolas Bourriaud:
- Art
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- General term describing a set of objects presented as part of a narrative known as art history. This narrative draws up the critical genealogy and discusses the issues raised by these objects, by way of three sub-sets: painting, sculpture and architecture.
- Nowadays, the word ‘art’ seems to be no more than a semantic leftover of this narrative, whose more accurate definition would read as follows: Art is an activity consisting in producing relationships with the world with the help of signs, forms, actions and objects.
The first of these definitions is utterly pragmatic; the second screams towards the target, hits the bulls-eye and quivers for a few moments whilst the repercussions reverberate out into the surroundings…