Cannons and Muses: Art in Real-time Crisis

Acting as protest or as propaganda, art has the ability to take a significant role in today's society. Cannons & Muses is a project aimed at enabling artists around the world to collaborate and create art in the context of real-time crisis. The program is based in thought and dialogue, resulting in multidisciplinary creation.

This project started in Israel, a country living in a constant state of political crisis, by two art students in Tel Aviv during the latest Gaza war (January 2009). The public in Israel seemed to be unanimously pro-war, and the voices of those resisting were almost unheard. The two dance-theater students at the Kibbutzim Seminar art school, Premshay Hermon and Danielle Natalie Kind, decided to organize a conference at their school, while the war was still "live," to review and examine the role of art in real-time crisis.

The conference was designed as a review of the past, present and future of the world of art in relation to the social reality surrounding it. The past portion was a "dead artists panel" (see embed), where six actors, all students at the Kibbutzim Seminar art school, portrayed six significant artists who lived in the 20th Century and had a clear attitude toward the place of their art in the troubled society surrounding them. The artists represented were Bertolt Brecht, Charlie Chaplin, Henri Matisse, Edith Piaf, Isadora Duncan and Leni Riefenstahl. The panel presented the work and the approaches of these artists and eventually allowed the characters to have a pseudo-argument about the commitment an artist has toward art as well as toward society. The heated argument was surprisingly interesting and entertaining, and brought up questions about whether or not art should be created in times of crisis, and if so, whether or not it should serve a purpose within its reality.

"Dead artists panel" at a conference organized by students at Tel Aviv's Kibbutzim Seminar art school after the January 2009 Gaza war. Six actors, all students at the school, portrayed six 20th Century artists who had a clear attitude toward the place of their art in the troubled society around them: Bertolt Brecht, Charlie Chaplin, Henri Matisse, Edith Piaf, Isadora Duncan and Leni Riefenstahl. This segment involves Duncan and Brecht. For a video of the "living artists" panel on art in a time of war visit the Cannons & Muses web site.

The “present” portion brought forth six active artists and prominent culture figures in Israel (see Cannons & Muses web site). The host was director-activist Udi Aloni, and the other panelists were singer/songwriter Sha'annan Street; the creator of the show "War, Rock Opera," Kobi Vitman; artist Uri Lifshitz; director and co-choreographer for Vertigo dance company Adi Sa'al; and artistic director for T'muna theater, Nava Zuckerman. In all fairness, these are all artists who are involved and were discussing whether or not artists should be involved. However, the discussion developing around this point brought up the "hows" and the "whats" essential for being a culture producer in any society, let alone one currently troubled by a crisis.

Finally came the “future portion,” which was time for deliberation in groups composed of the audience, primarily Israeli students and young artists. The practical outcomes of these discussion groups were nothing particularly noteworthy, but the response to the call and the participation of artists as well as activists pushed Premshay's mind into overdrive. He began to examine the topic of art in times of war more closely, leading to the conclusion that this topic is not a concern that is local to Israel, or to a specific crisis, but a deep, global issue that is important enough to be discussed in as many settings as possible.

Since the conference, which took place in January 2009, a group was formed around the Cannons & Muses idea, and several locations and directions are now being pursued. The project aims to be a thoughtful process leading to creation, and so the group has been composing a thread of ideas to form a theoretical background to their interests.

Artist as Prisoner?

An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success. (Henri Matisse)

This quote by Matisse defines a certain level of detachment from reality as a condition of becoming an artist. The enduring prevalence of this view is one of the motivations for the Cannons & Muses interest in art as political media. Seeing art as a socially detached object is described as mere irresponsibility in Suzi Gablik's book “Reenchantment of Art.” In the book, art that was created as "pure" is presented much like an abandoned child-prophet; unclaimed by its creator, it is left to be recruited by any dominant political notion. The manipulation of art into Nazi propaganda is mentioned as an example.

Another, more current point of view presented in Gablik's book is that of art historian Robert Rosenblum, who claims — not as Matisse did that art shouldn't involve an external purpose — but that art can't make a difference, even if it would like to. Gablik refutes both claims. According to her, by placing an artwork in the world, reality itself shifts art's position in society. A piece that is placed within a political context as well as one that is originally categorized as “art for art's sake” has an impact on society, and thus its creator has a responsibility towards it. Gablik emphasizes this and exposes the danger that lies in art created without a social commitment, leaving the piece unprotected by a political direction intended by its creation, and open to the potential interpretation of other ideas, possibly harmful to whatever belief system the artist would choose originally.

“Autonomous art,” as Gablik presents it in her book, is potentially more aggressive politically than politically intended art. This claim established any art as political, whether the artist constructs it as such or not. Gablik believes there is no escape from the prison society enforces upon art, and encourages those who produce culture to be wise and choose the cell containing their work instead of allowing it to be assigned by someone else.

Art as Hammer

Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it. (Bertolt Brecht)

Bertolt Brecht's aesthetics aim to show the world not as a single smooth unit; he puts in public view the stitches that make our world a whole. He charged bourgeois theater with being based on realistic illusions — mimicking reality, representing reality as a set fact, not encouraging audience members to think about how they may still make a difference. Brecht advocated the creation of working-class noncommercial theaters that can respond in real time to current social situations. He saw art as responsible for enabling and encouraging critical thought, educating the public and providing tools that would enhance the public's methods and ability to react to its regime.

Brecht believed reality can be changed by people with political awareness: The theater should bring to light the processes that form society, rather than introduce round and perfect characters that live in it. The actor's role is to emphasize the gap between his/her own existence and that of the character. To truly show the social process, the character is but an instrument, a symbolic representation, and needs to be viewed as one by the audience in order for the play's concept to serve its goal.

Brecht and Matisse were both "participants" in the initial Cannons & Muses panels and two of the primary sources that motivated the search for answers. Brecht's absolute view that art must working on and within society is one that seems suited to C&M’s view of the world but at the same time there is an insistence on a critical process. C&M sends its participants on a theoretical journey as well as a creative one.

Facing the Cannons — and the Canon

That being said, one must accept that in times of crisis, creating political art can be challenging. In the face of danger, societies tend to come together supporting each other and suffocating any kind of critique arising from within their ranks. It is a survival instinct. To be an artist in a society tightened together by a threat poses a double problem. The first is daring to find your critical voice as an artist, the second is finding an audience that will dare to listen.

The problem facing the creative stage is one that is pronounced in the proverb "When the cannons roar the muses fall silent" — the inspiration for the Cannons & Muses project title and frame of investigation. An artist active in times of war is necessarily faced by the question “Should my muse fall silent and wake up once the cannons cease?” Most government-led media have a definite positive answer to that question. And artists who choose to react to a political crisis in real time take the risk of being thrown to the fringe of the established art world and having their work delegitimized as art.

Another important issue that comes up with any intent to react in real time is a contemporary one, derived from the shortening in time span of recent wars. As true as it may be that no war emerges from a problem-free situation, the question of reacting to an active chapter of an ongoing crisis (for example, the January 2009 Gaza war) is becoming an increasingly complicated one. During the last 50 years, the length of a war has reduced from a few years to a matter of weeks, sometimes days. To have the impact of a piece that is a real-time reaction to an emergent situation, the artist is required to produce a critical, well-thought-out artwork of creative value, as it will be viewed more intensively than a piece created in peace time.

This problem becomes all the more apparent when talking of the performing-arts field. Stage arts normally require the work of a group of artists filling a variety of necessary functions on and off the stage. The creations grow from a single idea to an artwork partially through artistic collaboration, a process that needs time for communication, comprehension and creation.

In the C&M project, this dialogue is adopted as a key factor for creation, and not just in performance art. Since the question of art's role is one that should be occupying artists of all persuasions, the project is bringing together artists from all media, enabling a dialogue leading to collaborations through organized workshops and the creation of an infrastructure that builds a network of artists as well as other culture producers, such as academics, curators and art administrators.

The Cannons & Muses group is determined to face all those questions and problems through their doubts, using investigation and dialogue to find each and every participant's voice in this dilemma. The pursuits are varied, and spread across several fields, including the academic, artistic and curatorial. In the U.S. there isn't an active cohort at present, but Cannons & Muses organizers are responding a show of interest was expressed by gallery directors and several artists and academic working in New York and California.

Moran Been-noon is an Israeli-born artist with an M.F.A. in computer art from the School of Visual Art in New York City. She is currently working toward a Ph.D. in the departments of Visual Culture & Media at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland, focusing on “the limitations politics puts on our ability of free thought toward social/political solution finding through the use of rhetoric and propaganda, and what role aesthetics takes in the breaking down of these mental restrictions.”

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Cannons and Muses: An International Collaboration
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Original CAN/API publication: June 2009