ESSAY: EXITS
Some people want to escape into the art world, others want to escape from it. Art offers a refuge from the world as well as a way of engaging with it – politically, socially, aesthetically, philosophically. The challenge is to find a way to escape without escapism. By João Ribas
“Don’t we need a place of refuge from how tragic everything is, a site where we can confront the sinister absurdities and inequalities of the present, including those of the art world itself, while seeking solace from their domination? Contemporary art now suspends two opposing and seemingly contradictory impulses: towards being a refuge from evil and stupidity, and against being a zone for detached representation, for after-images of actual life.”
– This text appears in Spike #61. You can buy it in our online shop –