The narcissism of the artist
The past months I spoke with several people about Memefest and especially when I mentioned ' festival of radical communication' people started to wonder, what is this Memefest, where does it come from? When I said Slovenia, a person told me he was not surprised because in the old Europe (such as the Netherlands) according to him you don't have to have an opinion anymore and in the new Europe and the Balkans everyone has a more strong opinion, is more engaged with society, feels an urge to express their opinion and that's why more new forms of activism, communication and art gets develop in that part of the world. I'm not that updated to know if it is true but I recognize in Dutch society that cultural activities are often more about entertainment of the public or when it comes to art-work in many cases the art-work isn't saying, communicating anything but is just expressing the narcissism of the artist. Time for Memefest.
Comments
13 years, 9 months
I could observe similar reactions and thoughts as you are describing, when i was talking about Memefest with north Americans. They think that Memefest could evolve from a country that just started it's capitalist journey, still having a socialist historical memory.
I guess this is partly true. When capitalism came to Slovenia it was like a shock. The shock is still here and getting bigger, although a prevailing cynicism that proclaims: "there is no other alternative to capitalism" is stronger and stronger too. The de-politicization - in my opinion- does not manifest it self in lack of opinion, but in the fact that everybody has to have an opinion about everything. However this opinions somehow doesn't correspond to any social action in everyday life. Why is that?
13 years, 9 months
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