The Preface | Oscar Wilde

Als introductie op het CAESUURprogramma 2017 – stel de stad een vraag – maakte de in Barcelona werkende en studerende Núria Bofarull^Spanje in augustus 2016 op ons verzoek een werk.
Het werd een video met een ambigue tekst van Oscar Wilde, The Preface, gepubliceerd in 1891.
De video staat van 01/01/’17 00:01 u. t/m 14/01/’17 geprojecteerd op de ruit van ruimteCAESUUR.

The Preface

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.
(…)
No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.