![]() ![]() Classic democracy applied to a small segment of the population only. Remember that the polis in Athens did not include slaves, immigrants or women. In the United States, this happened with the Declaration of Independence, while Europe had to wait for the French Revolution. Would there also be a direct connection between a kind of art and a kind of political regime that dominates the western hemisphere? Is there a link between modern art and the democracies in which it is embedded? Is there a specific art of democracy, which consequently can only survive in democracies? But also: what is the art of realizing and maintaining a political democracy? The phrase The art of democracy can be interpreted in two ways: as which art facilitates democracy and as which conditions should a political regime meet to be defined as democratic nowadays? These questions make it necessary to first re-examine some basic concepts, such as: What actually is democracy and, perhaps even more difficult: what is the definition of modern art? The basic formula of democracyĪlthough democracy harks back to principles from the year 508 B.C., it was only at the end of the eighteenth century that modern democracy was firmly outlined. It sets in motion a train of thought that has become highly topical nowadays. Earlier in his essay, Benjamin had already mentioned in passing that in the future, when its ritual function has evaporated, art will be founded in politics. Beside his main thesis that art has lost its aura through technical reproduction, Benjamin thus initiates - in his renowned essay - another interesting train of thought, one that assumes there is a specific relationship between art and society or, more specifically, between cultural production and political regimes. In the afterword of The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin’s links cultural mass production with the aestheticization of politics and with fascism. Instead of being founded on ritual, it is based on a different practice: politics.’ ‘…as soon as the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applied to artistic production, the whole social function of art is revolutionized. ![]()
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