Unauthorized Art or the Art of Unauthorized Criticism: Stefano Questioli
By Stefano Questioli
In all truth, the present article is an attempt to give a name to a radical artistic phenomenon, which takes on various forms and violates the ground rules of Contemporary Art with a sort of proverbial indifference. This change in artistic expression could derive in part from a generational change, nevertheless this ‘anti-movement’ has roots as far back as thirty years ago. In any case, it is only today that this phenomenon is beginning to become truly evident, thanks in part to the distinct physiognomies that have been defining themselves more clearly as time goes on, and in part to developments in the elevation of their artistic register and the greater depth in their poetic quest. But most of all, thanks to the constant and relentless invasion of our imagination by brand name labels. It has become possible to distinguish a common thread that joins distinctive personalities such as Bansky, Zeus, El tono, Blu, Ericailcane, Space Invaders, The Plug, Sweza, and many more, including the infinite "wu ming", the nameless, who do not sign their works, that is, who choose not to hide the piece of art itself behind any sort of ‘manufacturer’s’ label. What we’re speaking about here is multimedia street art, born from diffuse, transversal and impersonal creativity, weaving through our daily movements, globally linked and pluri-centric. Graffiti, stencil, stickers and advertisement alteration are the jargon that give form to this "art of rebellion", that is only in it’s primary stages of diffusion.
This ‘unauthorized’ art is an ironic, scoffing reaction to the relentless advance of the advertising image into all of our daily panoramas. The ‘ad’ spreads out over our landscapes like concrete, it takes over territories with the same nonchalance with which cement is laid down, shouting out its virtual cry of war.
The works of these artists live a short life. Even though it is technically possible to create infinite reproductions (when speaking of stencils and stickers in particular), their precariousness creates the same aura that seemed definitively compromised in the artwork of the last century. The indignation of the street cleaners, fanatically aseptic, makes these phenomena, and their constant cleaning, unique and miraculous.
It is interesting to note that the images made with mask models and aerosol spray are never the same; whereas the tags, obsessively spread out everywhere like fungus, are always reproduced identically, created with an idea similar to that of the fixed moves of a martial art.
This work is in direct conversation with the art of the ‘70s and ‘80s. They share the same locations (territorial markings) and maybe even the same raison d’etre (the need for expression manifested by the social classes living in the ghettoes of contemporary society, as a "principal of extermination" according to Baudrillard). The great decorative signatures (‘writings’) are predominately postmodern initial letters of an illumination, ideograms that signify an individual, obtained through an embellishment of the written word, like a kind of graphic miasma. But the type of expression present in the tags is deaf and self-absorbed (who is really able to read those tags?), and differs from the art in question here, that is, instead, made to be easily comprehensible (through logos, the use of cartoon, comics and ad styles, etc.)
Abusive art should not be confused with public art, that also takes place outdoors, but is always organized and promoted by some type of institution (either artistic or political). The content might sometimes seem similar, but, on an ontological level, it is quite the contrary. Abusive art prospers because it is unconditioned and un-asked for. Furthermore, the ethical aspiration between these phenomena and that of net-art is surprisingly strong; they come out of the same humus, they are both indebted to Guy Debord. The will to undermine is summed up nicely by the technological do-it-yourself wonder by the name of Hector, a cyborg who is able to make true graffiti through software programs (Hector makes long-distance wall graffiti possible through the simple use of two cables attached to a spray can on a string, all hooked up to an onsite computer.)
Among these works, made with a legally indictable deliberateness, left free in the open air, there is true excellence. To find the ‘culprits’ responsible for these acts, all one has to do to is to visit the internet sites that make up the virtual archive of what would otherwise be only a vanishing memory.
Bansky is without a doubt the forefather of this movement. In his Londoner series dedicated to industrial treatment of livestock, he uses the skin of living animals (that is, of beings who, etymologically speaking, possess a soul) as his painting surface, in this way tying his own artistic actions in to the madness of the Western world’s bulimic behavior, the cause of terrible collective disease. Then there are the stencil series against repressive power, pedophilia, war, and basically against all authority.
The Frenchman, Zeus, with his spectacular visual kidnapping of the billboard image of a half-naked woman under the slogan "express yourself" is motivated by an iconoclastic impulse. The gesture demands a payoff of silence, an attempt to reach visual purification, as if it were the last chance to be saved from this type of terminal eye cancer. The Space Invaders, copying the famous arcade game, fill the cities with aliens, which fall on our heads without facing resistance.
The highly talented mural artists, Blu and Ericalcane, with the occasional contribution of their German friend, Sweza, have given Bologna one of its most innovative seasons in these past few years. Their work was what, in fact, inspired the present article. On the walls of buildings throughout this historical city located in the heart of the Po river valley, scoffing, well-made characters began to appear. These figures were made with such refined technical skills that it was impossible to imagine them having been created in the depths of the night while avoiding patrolling policemen. Even if a mention must be made of their illustrious precursor in Bologna, active during the 90s, Pea Brain, the chick who promoted a goliardic winning-back of the mind, these sarcastic images (that at times touch on current issues) have recently awoken the porticos of this sleeping city.
The Spaniards El Tono and his partner, Nuria, make their contribution by sniffing out and filling incognito spaces with their highly complex geometric patterns. This all too brief list does not do justice to the powerful communication behind these works.
In Italy today, after a long debate, the "immaterial" has been able to earn the much longed-for definition as something defended by the law as the concrete product of artistic acts (theatrical representations for example). The aesthetic act examined here – although often involving concrete objects and forms – must be absurdly defined as an "immaterial form", a true conceptual euphoria, given its precarious, vanishing nature.
And this is where the status quaestionis of these aesthetic acts falls apart, with the attempt to stop the flow of movement, with the unending will to "deport" works of art into the gallery. ‘Unauthorized Art’ will be able to survive only for as lon
