A l’aube du millénaire, à l’aube de ce siècle maudit où la cybernétique, les technologies de l’information et de l’intelligence artificielle ont envahi nos vies et sous couvert de positivisme toutes les valeurs humaines ont été arrogantes, et brutalement élaguées ; sans parler de la défense de l’héritage de la tradition moderniste, dans les bas-fonds de cette vie dite moderne où les jeunes se transforment en poubelles d’internet avec l’intention d’être une star du rock and roll, qu’avons-nous vraiment immanent à la culture écrite ?
“Dans la société postmoderne, où le social se dissout dans le quotidien, la critique de la vie quotidienne inclut inévitablement la critique des structures socio-politiques. Il est important dans ce contexte que le processus objectif, les zones de subjectivité que l’autorité normalisatrice de la consommation n’a pas encore dominées, communiquent sur la base d’une éthique anticapitaliste. Réduire la part de l’objectif, de l’argent, de l’échange et de la consommation dans la vie quotidienne sont des conditions nécessaires à l’émergence d’une subjectivité anti-autoritaire. Une libre anarchie d’émotions, de rencontres, d’intuitions, d’intensités libérées de l’objectivité. Décrypter, évacuer, satiriser et scandaliser les signes du quotidien, qui trouve finalement son expression dans la consommation. Perturbation et perturbation des relations de consommation avec les jeux et la contre-simulation. Mêlant dysfonction, défaitisme et inadéquation avec un enthousiasme anarchique et une créativité face à un quotidien conformiste où tout tient. Exposition critique de tous les pans de la vie quotidienne par des effets aliénants. À la différence de la fugacité des signes et de l’échange, la fugacité des intensités anti-autoritaires se rencontrant sur la base de l’entraide et de la solidarité, qui ne permet pas l’institutionnalisation du consommateur. Ce n’est pas une éphémère qui se vit et s’oublie, mais une éphémère qui porte l’espoir et la possibilité de se retrouver dans un autre espace autonome à l’avenir. Une anarchie qui ne se limite pas à la décentralisation et vise à éliminer toutes sortes de relations de pouvoir, de contrôle, de gestion, d’autorité et de hiérarchie dans la vie quotidienne.” -Sociologue Yaşar Çabuklu
En plus de toute cette médiocrité, on assiste à la germination de nombreuses idées innovantes et mouvements artistiques qui ont pu exister en créant leurs propres espaces indépendants, notamment sur le continent-europe et diverses parties du monde depuis les années 1980. Dans ce contexte, nous ne pouvons nous empêcher de mentionner TIMELESS Edition, qui a contribué à nous faire découvrir ces talents extraordinaires, notamment avec ses trésors culturels écrits uniques.
Yoksa Dadaesk başkaldırı, Sürrealist Devrim ve Sitüasyonist Enternasyonal’in özgürlük düşünü çoktan rafa kaldırıp, kaderimizi sosyal medya algoritmalarına mı bıraktık?!
Bin yılın şafağında, sibernetik, bilişim ve yapay zeka teknolojilerinin hayatımızı istila ettiği, ilerlemecilik (positivism) kisvesiyle insani tüm değerlerin acımasız, küstah ve zorbaca budandığı bu lanetli yüzyılın şafağında, modernist geleneğin mirasına sahip çıkmak şöyle dursun gençlerin bağlantı hızıyla -rock’n roll yıldızı niyetine- birer internet çöpüne dönüştürüldüğü bu sözde modern gündelik hayatın sığlığında, gerçek anlamda yazılı kültüre içkin elimizde ne var?!
“Toplumsal olanın gündelik olan içinde eridiği postmodern toplumda gündelik hayatın eleştirisi, ister istemez toplumsal-politik yapıların eleştirisini de içerir. Nesnel sürecin, tüketimin standartlaştırıcı otoritesinin henüz hâkimiyet kuramadığı öznellik alanlarının, anti-kapitalist bir etik temelinde iletişime girmesi bu bağlamda önem kazanır. Gündeliğin içindeki nesnel olanın, paranın, mübadelenin, tüketimin payının azaltılması anti-otoriter bir öznelliğin oluşabilmesi için gerekli koşullardır. Nesnellikten kurtulmuş duyguların, rastlaşmaların, sezgilerin, yoğunlukların özgür anarşisi. Her şeyin önünde sonunda ifadesini tüketimde bulduğu gündelik hayata ilişkin göstergelerin deşifre edilmesi, anlamlarının boşaltılması, hicvedilmesi, skandalize edilmesi. Tüketim ilişkilerinin oyunla, karşı simülasyonla bozulması, aksatılması. Her şeyin uyduğu konformist bir gündelik hayata karşı işlevsizliğin, bozgunculuğun, uygunsuzluğun anarşizan bir coşku ve yaratıcılıkla birleştirilmesi. Gündelik hayatın tüm parçalarının yadırgatıcı, yabancılaştırıcı efektler aracılığıyla eleştirel teşhiri. Göstergelerin ve değiş tokuşun geçiciliğinden farklı olarak anti-otoriter yoğunlukların tüketimsel kurumsallaşmaya imkân tanımayan, karşılıklı yardım ve dayanışma temelinde buluşmalarının geçiciliği. Yaşanıp unutulan bir geçicilik değil, ileride başka bir otonom alanda buluşma umudunu ve imkânını içinde taşıyan bir geçicilik. Kendini desantralizasyonla sınırlamayan, gündelik hayattaki her türlü iktidar, denetim, yönetim, otorite ve hiyerarşi ilişkisinin ortadan kaldırılmasını amaçlayan bir anarşi.” -Yaşar Çabuklu
Özellikle 1980’lerden bu yana kıta-avrupasında ve dünyanın çeşitli bölgelerinde kendi bağımsız alanlarını yaratarak varolabilmiş, ve halen de varoluş mücadelesi veren bir çok yenilikçi düşünce, alternatif-kültür ve sanat hareketinin filizlendiğini görüyoruz. Bu bağlamda ortaya koyduğu nitelikli eserlerle bizleri bu sıradışı yeteneklerle tanıştıran TIMELESS Edition’a değinmeden edemezdik.
Or have we already shelved the dream of freedom of the Dadaesque rebellion, the Surrealist Revolution and the Situationist International and left our fate to social media algorithms?!
At the dawn of the millennium, at the dawn of this cursed century when cybernetics, information and artificial intelligence technologies invaded our lives and in the guise of positivism all human values were arrogantly and brutally pruned; let alone defending the legacy of the modernist tradition, In the shallows of this so-called modern life where young people are turning themselves into internet trash -with the intention of being a rock’n roll star-, what do we have truly immanent to written culture?
“In the postmodern society, where the social dissolves into the everyday, the critique of everyday life inevitably includes the critique of socio-political structures. It is important in this context that the objective process, the subjectivity areas that the standardizing authority of consumption has not yet dominated, communicate on the basis of an anti-capitalist ethic. Reducing the share of the objective, money, exchange and consumption in everyday life are necessary conditions for an anti-authoritarian subjectivity to emerge. A free anarchy of emotions, encounters, intuitions, intensities freed from objectivity. Deciphering, evacuating, satirizing, and scandalizing the signs of everyday life, which ultimately finds its expression in consumption. Disruption and disruption of consumption relations with games and counter-simulation. Combining dysfunction, defeatism and inappropriateness with anarchic enthusiasm and creativity against a conformist everyday life where everything fits. Critical exposure of all parts of everyday life through alienating effects. Unlike the transience of signs and exchange, the transience of anti-authoritarian intensities meeting on the basis of mutual aid and solidarity, which does not allow for consumer institutionalization. It is not a transience that is lived and forgotten, but a transience that carries the hope and possibility of meeting in another autonomous area in the future. An anarchy that does not limit itself to decentralization and aims to eliminate all kinds of power, control, management, authority and hierarchy relations in daily life.” -Sociologist Yaşar Çabuklu
In addition to all this mediocrity, we are witnessing the sprout of many innovative ideas and art movements that have been able to exist by creating their own independent spaces, especially in the continent-europe and various parts of the world since the 1980s. In this context, we cannot help but mention TIMELESS Edition, which has been instrumental in introducing us to these extraordinary talents, especially with its unique written cultural treasures.
“Catalogue of the mindblowing and huge exhibition dedicated to the NAROK group exhibition done by Le Dernier Cri in Marseille from Nov 2021 till Feb 2022. This exhibition was initiated by Pakito Bolino after being inspired by ‘NAROK’ photo book by Stephen Bessac and published by Timeless Ed. in 2019.
This book shows the various reinterpretations of Thai hell’s gardens done by a myriad of artists from all over the world. To recreate those hellish visions, they used very different medias such as painting, drawing, screen printing, etching, sculptures, video,… This a state-of-the-art tribute to the mortuary cult and also to Thai popular culture dealing with that subject such as horror mangas.”
BUY BOOKS AND PRINTS !!!
NAROK Exhibition Catalogue
Le Dernier Cri & Timeless Editions
2022 – France
Antoine Bernhart’s “JUJU JINX”
Nearly 15 years after his Skull Skool series, Antoine Bernhart returns with Johnny Skull and his brand new skeleton army. But wait, there’s more, much more. The cast of Antoine’s intimate theatre of cruelty features a priapic Elvis, disturbing Wild Ones, sleazy folk bands, fiendish cowboys, shibari masters at their best, an extra-lustful Bettie Page, dead and undead famous rock’n’rollers including the ones Antoine worked for (The Meteors, Tall Boys, The Cramps,…)
The sick and sexy dark ink from Antoine Bernhart
will inevitably cast a spell on you.
Foreword by Nick Garrard of Psychobilly scene fame
The book is available in a standard and different special editions.
JUJU JINX (standard edition) – Antoine Bernhart
Antoine Bernhart started to produce automatic drawings in the mid 60s and they were published along with Christian Bernard’s writings in 1968 as a book called ‘H‘.
This book drew the attention of PHASES which was an international art group created by Edouard Jaguer gathering writers influenced by Lautréamont, some Surrealist artists and some from the Lyrical Abstraction movement.
Antoine became a member of this artistic group as soon as his automatic drawings were published in the PHASES magazine (which included collaborators such as Wifredo Lam and Pierre Soulages).
PAPIER HANTÉS is a book compiling recent and older examples of Antoine’s automatic drawings which were exhibited at the MAMCO (Museum of Modern Art of Geneva) as well at Les Abattoirs (Museum of Modern art of Toulouse).
This extract from the Christian Bernard foreword give us a very good glimpse of the book’s content :
“When Bernhart puts his pen to Bristol board, the lines it will draw are not present in the artist’s mind; they are not lucidly projected. A nascent curve suggests an organic shape which slowly becomes clearer and merges into others which carry it or drown it under their adjacent movements. In other words, the artist welcomes the shapes that appear in the wake of his pen and accompanies them in their maturation and proliferation.”
PAPIERS HANTÉS (standard edition) – Antoine Bernhart
LÖPÇÜK 