Manifesto Page #5

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Cate.

I see.

And what about conceptual art?

It is the objective of

the conceptual artist

to make his work mentally

interesting to the spectator.

And therefore,

usually, he would want

it to become emotionally dry.

Now, Cate, there's

no reason to suppose

however, that the

conceptual artist

is out to bore the viewer.

Cate, once it's out of his hand,

the artist has no control

over whether the viewer

will perceive the work.

Now, different people will

understand the same thing

in different ways.

For instance, art critics

use a secret language

when communicating

with each other

through the medium

of art magazines.

Primary structures, reductive,

ejective, pool or mini art.

Well, mini art

sounds interesting.

Must refer to very

small works of art,

or maybe the mini artist

is a very small person.

Thanks very much, Cate.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

So conceptual art is

one way of making art.

Other ways suit other artists.

Conceptual art is good

only when the idea is good.

Idea, form, context.

Idea, the existence...

Good.

Of an idea

is necessary and sufficient

for the existence of art.

For the existence of form

is necessary but not sufficient

for realizing an idea.

I said it.

We call upon all honest

intellectuals, all writers

and artists, to abandon the

size of the treacherous notion

that art can exist

for art's sake.

Art.

That the artist

can remain remote

from the historic conflicts in

which all men must take sides.

We call upon them to break with

the bourgeois ideals which seek

to conceal the violence and

fraud, the corruption and decay

of the capitalist society.

We urge them to

create a new art which

shall be a weapon and a

For a new and superior world.

Imagine an eye unruled by man

made laws of perspective.

An eye unprejudiced by

compositional logic.

An eye which must

know each object

encountered in life through

an adventure of perception.

How many colors are

there in a field

of grass to the crawling

baby unaware of green?

How many rainbows can light

create for the untutored eye?

How aware of variation in

heat waves can that eye be?

Imagine a world alive with

incomprehensible objects,

and shimmering with an

endless variety of movement

and innumerable

graduations of color.

Imagine a world, before

the beginning was the word.

Allow so-called

hallucinations to enter

the realm of perception.

Accept dream visions-day

dreams or night dreams.

There is no need

for the mind's eye

to be deadened after infancy.

OK.

Class, is everyone listening?

Now, nothing is original.

OK?

So you can steal from anywhere

that resonates with inspiration

and fuels your imagination.

OK?

OK.

And you can devour old

films, new films, music, books,

paintings, photographs, poems,

dreams, random conversations,

architecture, buildings,

bridges, you know, trees,

cloud formations, bodies

of water, you know,

even... even light and shadows.

Now, I want you to select only

those things to steal from that

speak directly to your soul.

All right?

Now if you do this, your

work... and your theft...

Will be authentic.

All right?

Now, authenticity is invaluable.

OK?

Now originality is non-existent.

So don't bother trying

to conceal your thievery.

You can celebrate it, you

know, if you feel like it.

But in any case, I want

you to remember what John

Luke Goddard said, all right'?

All right.

It's not where

you take things from,

it's where you take them to.

Mm hmm.

The shooting must be

done on location, OK?

Props and sets must

not be brought in.

No, no.

Music must not be

used unless it occurs

where the scene is being shot.

OK?

OK.

Mm hmm.

The camera must be hand-held.

And the film must be in color.

See?

And special lighting

is not acceptable.

Now optical filters

are forbidden.

All right?

Yes.

Oh, and also, the film must not

contain any superficial action.

OK?

OK.

No, genre movies

are not acceptable.

OK?

And the director

must not be credited.

All right?

It's very important.

I swear

to refrain from personal taste.

I am no longer an artist.

I swear to refrain

from creating a work,

as I regard the instant is

more important than the whole.

My supreme goal is to

force the truth out

of my characters and settings.

I swear to do so by all

the means available,

and at the cost of

any good taste and

any aesthetic considerations.

Fact creates

norms, and truth illumination.

OK, John?

Next time.

There are deeper

strata of truth in cinema.

And there is such a thing

as poetic, ecstatic truth.

It is mysterious

and elusive, and can

be reached only through

fabrication and imagination

and stylization.

I am at war with my

time, with history,

with all authorities that reside

in fixed and frightened forms.

I am one of millions who do

not fit in, who have no home,

no family, no doctrine, no

firm place to call my own,

no known beginning or end.

I declare war on all

icons and finalities.

On all histories that would

chain me with my own falseness,

my own pitiful fears.

I know only moments, and

lifetimes that are as moments,

and forms that appear

with infinite strength

then melt into air.

I am a constructor of

worlds, a sensualist who

worships the flesh, the melody.

A silhouette against

the darkening sky.

I cannot know your name,

nor can you know mine.

Tomorrow, We begin together

the construction of a city.

Intuitive forms should

arise out of nothing.

Such forms will not be

repetition of living things

in life, but will themselves...

To those who

don't understand us properly,

we say with an

irreducible scorn,

we of whom you believe

yourself to be the judges,

will one day judge you.

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