Artists as Celebrities: The Rise of the ArtiStar

Contemporary society no longer needs art objects but requires artists who create spaces for reflection on otherwise overlooked themes. The symbolic value of images dominates today's culture, from advertisements to memes. Marina Abramović's silent performance at Glastonbury Festival and a boat of immigrants floating over the crowd exemplify this shift toward explicit symbolic works and experience-based actions. These may lack the elegance of Bill Viola, Douglas Gordon, or Nam June Paik, but they effectively connect broad audiences. The emerging figure of the ArtiStar engages publics inaccessible to traditional contemporary artists, both aesthetically and commercially. The market is the infrastructure enabling contemporary art to exist; without it, art forms disappear, as seen with NFTs' rapid rise and fall. The artist's social function, detached from the artwork itself, echoes Joseph Beuys' quasi-shamanism but cannot replace actors or musicians. Transforming artists into ArtiStars—celebrities who reduce complexity and expand interpreters—could revitalize a tired art scene and achieve significant market scale. This represents a forward-looking investment in art.