The ubiquity of the image

The ‘entryism’ I was referring to is a strategy put in place by Trotsky himself. As some see it, he was trying to strengthen the Left. Others, myself among them, think that Lev Davidovitch had an ulterior motive and wanted to gain power in the socialist parties and trade unions by infiltrating and working from inside them. In any case, ‘entryism’ does not end with the Ramón Mercader episode -it continued to be the watchword in Trotskyist organizations in the early 1970s.Despite the colossal power of the forces that control the dissemination of the image, and the enormous resilience of the system -does anyone still talk about Marcuse today?- I remain optimistic: optimistic because the system has its weaknesses, and artists have found strategies with which to exploit them. ‘Entryism’ is one of these. Rather than a frontal attack, infiltrating the system and using its power, its institutions and its channels of distribution to oppose it is a form of ‘intellectual judo’: using the strength of your opponent in order to combat him more effectively.

Hijacking and appropriation, key strategies of contemporary art, are starting to infiltrate more and more into (almost) every area of the production of images. Of course, as Christian rightly reminds us, this is a minority phenomenon. That said, it is important because it instills doubt. Doubts in relation to the ‘evidence’ that a picture apparently offers, doubts about its supposed objectivity, and doubts about the neutrality of the system that instrumentalizes it. And in order to make anyone change their point of view, the first thing is to make them doubt!

I believe there is more in all of this than merely ‘the glory of the attempt’, and I’m rather enamoured of the metaphor Joan used: a vaccine. It’s up to all of us to see to it that ‘the glory of the attempt’ goes beyond the simple merit of having at least made an effort and amounts to something more than a valiant last stand!

Etiquetes: appropriation, dissemination, doubt, hijacking

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