Abstracts
Abstract
This is a theoretically driven consideration of the relation between art and the vinyl record that foregrounds the motif of “destruction” in attempting to comprehend this relation. Christian Marclay’s well-known work, Record Without a Cover—designed to be destroyed by individual consumers—serves as the touchstone for a series of reflections on how the aesthetic medium of the cinema has staged the destruction of records (Richard Brook’s Blackboard Jungle), or how sculptures can be fashioned from destroyed records (Jean Shin’s Sound Wave). In all cases, what resists destruction is the spindle hole, a hole that in Marclay’s recent works is given sonic resonance in “the scream” issuing from the mouth, a hole in the face. Drawing on Jacques Lacan’s discussion of “the hole” in psychosis, the essay considers how Marclay’s work operates less as a presentation of aesthetic truth, and more as an aesthetic probing of the politics of art, that is, the ability of aesthetic practice to pose questions about the ideology of an institutionally sanctioned principle of the shiny semblance (schöne Schein). Theodor Adorno’s inversion of Hegel’s “The Whole is the True,” is thus inverted—reversed and destroyed—in turn.
Keywords:
- Theodor Adorno,
- destruction,
- Jacques Lacan,
- Christian Marclay,
- spindle hole
Résumé
Cet essai propose une réflexion théorique sur la relation entre l’art et le disque vinyle que l’on tentera de comprendre par la mise en avant du motif de la « destruction ». L’oeuvre bien connue de Christian Marclay, Record Without a Cover, conçue pour être détruite par les consommateurs individuels, sert de point de départ à une série de réflexions sur la manière dont le médium esthétique du cinéma a mis en scène la destruction de disques (Blackboard Jungle de Richard Brooks), ou sur la manière dont des sculptures peuvent être façonnées à partir de disques détruits (Sound Wave de Jean Shin). Dans tous les cas, ce qui résiste à la destruction, c’est le trou de broche, qui, dans les oeuvres récentes de Marclay, trouve une résonance sonore dans « le cri » qui sort de la bouche – un trou dans le visage. S’inspirant de la discussion de Jacques Lacan sur « le trou » dans la psychose, cet essai examine la manière dont l’oeuvre de Marclay fonctionne moins comme une présentation de la vérité esthétique que comme un examen esthétique de la politique de l’art, c’est-à-dire de la capacité de la pratique esthétique à poser des questions sur l’idéologie d’un principe institutionnellement sanctionné du beau semblant (schöne Schein). L’inversion par Theodor Adorno de l’affirmation hégélienne selon laquelle « le vrai est le tout » est ainsi à son tour inversée – renversée et détruite.
Mots-clés :
- Theodor Adorno,
- destruction,
- Jacques Lacan,
- Christian Marclay,
- trou de broche
Appendices
Bibliography
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