The avant-garde: art as theory

Abstract

_{The starting point of the paper are the questions formulated in 1993 by Philip Auslander as to whether the avant-garde is possible in postmodernism, or whether postmodernism itself can be regarded as a new phase of the avant-garde. The representatives of avant-garde art considered theory to be of great importance. Therefore, an attempt to answer the questions has been made here from the point of view of three theoretical approaches to the problem. The first one has been discussed with reference to Paul Mann's book The Theory-Death of the Avant-Garde assthat art today functions within the framework of a “discursive economy”. The avant-garde theories, opposed to the artistic status quo, in fact support the functioning of this mechanism, becoming “discourse productive”. Thus, instead of renewing it, they contribute to the death of the avant-garde, which is absorbed by the cultural “exchange effect”. The second approach, referred to as “theory-life”, is developed on the basis of the reneving atbaet, by Peter Bürger. He considered that the basic aspiration of the avantgarde was an attack against the institution of art and revolutionizing life as a whole. This renewal was announced in their writings and manifested in artworks which became a way of undertaking and attempting to solve theoretical problems. I have described this phenomenon as “theorism”. The third option discussed is the “end of theory”, with reference to Victor Burgin's book of the same title. The British author believes that the concept of art shaped from the Renaissance period onwards through the Enlightenment and Romanticism, has collapsed in the 20th century. Currently art operates not in the area of theory, but in the sphere of the discourses creating “semblances of truth” and performing mobilizing and strategic, not ontological functions. The article concludes with some remarks on the change of metaphors (“death”, “life”, “end”), which are employed in connection with the avant-garde, as well as the possible consequences of this situation.}