AFFLUENCE OF THE WORKING CLASS FROM DIFFERENTIATION TO COLLECTIVISM
(ON FASHION AND POLITICS OF AESTHETICS)
EXHIBITION
October 10, 2013 - February 14, 2014
@PAVILION | center for contemporary art & culture | proudly supported
by UniCredit Tiriac Bank
OPENING
Thursday, October 10, 2013, 19.00 hours
Followed by a special event organized by Reforma, in the courtyard,
22.00 hours.
Curator: Razvan Ion
Participanti: Marina Albu (RO), Maria Balea (RO), Cosmin Gradinariu (RO), Gergő Horváth (RO), Vladislav Mamyshev(RU), Radu Nițescu (RO), Adrian Paci (AL), Corneliu Porumboiu (RO), Andu Simion (RO), Felix Gonzales Torres (USA), Wu Tsang (USA)
“Modern social codes allow the immediately inferior group to imitate the gestures and preferences of their superiors. According to this pattern, groups which have a higher status are forced to adopt new styles in order to maintain their superiority/difference, tastes being filtered downwards along social status. This happens periodically, so a circular process is created, generating the apparently strange mutations which we call fashion.
The financial affluence of the middle-class and the large consumption are viewed as means for exclusion – not being able to identify with other groups; the affluence of the middle-class is seen as means for imitation – being able to identify with other groups. It is said that mass production is threatened by erosion, by absorption or by making the differences between classes seem unimportant, by making the preservation of “distinction” prerogative for the privileged and the elite. The result is that those from the subordinate groups, rather than having their own methods of exclusion, they crave towards those belonging to a higher group.
A history of nostalgia hasn’t been yet established, but the conscience in the past tense in relation with the behaviour explains a crucial difference. The past is conjured up nostalgically, as a time of innocence and of modest experiences. In the past, somebody was really alive and if somebody was able to make sense of the past, the confusion of the present could be eased. This is the truth in retrospect. Psychoanalytic therapy comes from this feeling of Victorian nostalgia, as does the modern cult of youth.” (Extras from: Razvan Ion, “Affluence of the working class from differentiation to collectivism”)
