Art-o-thlon seeks to address complexity of a current cultural landscape, where “underground” and “mainstream” have an increasingly cross-referential relationship, and also, where democratization of media inevitably leads to re-formulation of criteria for judgment. Modernity is marked by an exaggerated visual and acoustic proliferation drawn together into what is known as a popular culture. This project seeks to establish an active relationship between popular media and art, avoiding the commonplace trappings of the mainstream critical rejection, which polarizes “high” culture to its lowly brethren and fosters exceptionality yet prevalent unpopularity of the cultural context. Immersion of the participants (students, artists, academics) of Art-o-thlon and the results of their work (of art) into the context of popular culture is the key element of this project. During the course of scheduled events, a unique artistic activity will take place in an open urban background.
Art-o-thlon is intended as a cultural crucible fusing such public constructs of symbolic violence and competition, game and a fight with the predominantly solitary and introverted condition of art making—an experiment aimed at testing if “live” art is possible under the harsh limelight of live television. The popularly assumed demarcation between artistic and non-artistic engagement is being relentlessly corrected. Mass-produced objects became valid artifacts already since the Duchamp’s readymade revolution, though artistic inauguration of these objects was conveniently performed in a gallery space. Art-o-thlon follows in this vein, attempting similar and opposite at the same time: A) engaging with a mass-produced media as a virtual readymade and B) re-contextualizing art (making) by publically exposing the very act of the birth of an artwork.
A plunge into a hysteric whirl of the show business, marred by clichés and rapid devaluation of any genuine authenticity would serve as a structural test for the young aspiring artists. For wide audience however, it would be perhaps a first step of establishing a gentle affinity with the contemporary art. Ability to cast a vote for favourite artwork will serve as a surrogate authority, spectacular yet incommensurate to the true value of the artwork. Election of the “best” artist is a political spillover of the total democracy into the realm of subjective value such as art and is as much about the procedure-as-entertainment as it is about the shadows of the democracy of taste; and lastly, as a parallel track, it could certainly condition the participants experiencing all the social and psychological bearings of popularity or resentment.
