Art et Société

The radio recites its list of good news : corruption, speculation, unemployment... Like Grosz who, in 1920, made fun in his work of those who took advantage of a system that "grants to the unemployed day after day what they need to die", should the artist simply make an observation on the state of the world ? Or should he get more involved by intervening directly on social reality ? Since the 1970s, Hans Haacke has made troubling connections between art, politics and money, his favourite subject. In "Shapolski", photographic documentation that analyses the running of real estate businesses, he denounces the taking over by the Shapolski group of poor housing in Manhattan. But the exhibition was cancelled by the Guggenheim museum, an institution that is financed by the social class that he was denouncing. Wodiczko invents artifices : "Le Bâton de l'immigré" (1992), a sort of long stick with a video screen at the end of it, reveals to the passer-by the experience of the immigrant. (Annick Spay)