Art has its own power in the world, and is as much
a force in the power play of global politics today as it
once was in the arena of cold war politics. Art, argues
the distinguished theoretician Boris Groys, is hardly a
powerless commodity subject to the art market's fiats of
inclusion and exclusion. In Art Power, Groys examines
modern and contemporary art according to its ideological
function. Art, Groys writes, is produced and brought
before the public in two ways -- as a commodity and as a
tool of political propaganda. In the contemporary art
scene, very little attention is paid to the latter
function. Arguing for the inclusion of politically
motivated art in contemporary art discourse, Groys
considers art produced under totalitarianism, Socialism,
and post-Communism. He also considers today's mainstream
Western art -- which he finds behaving more and more
according the norms of ideological propaganda: produced
and exhibited for the masses at international
exhibitions, biennials, and festivals. Contemporary art,
Groys argues, demonstrates its power by appropriating
the iconoclastic gestures directed against itself -- by
positioning itself simultaneously as an image and as a
critique of the image. In Art Power, Groys examines this
fundamental appropriation that produces the paradoxical
object of the modern artwork.
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