Bernard Marcadé on Art's Value in Crisis: From Wim Delvoye's Cloaca to Pussy Riot
In an article for Artpress, critic Bernard Marcadé examines the significance of art amid economic downturns and political oppression, highlighting Wim Delvoye's Cloaca (2000) and the Pussy Riot demonstration in Moscow from 2012. He reflects on his 1989 assertion that art serves as a means of value when conventional metrics fail. Delvoye's work, a machine that generates excrement, was offered as convertible bonds priced at €3,000 each, providing a 1.3% annual return, allowing investors to choose between speculative growth and capital safety. Influenced by Duchamp and Russian bonds, Delvoye foresaw the 2008 financial crisis. Additionally, the performance on August 17, 2012, resulted in two-year sentences for three activists, including Maria Alekhina, for 'hooliganism,' which Marcadé interprets as a powerful fusion of art and political dissent.
Key facts
- Bernard Marcadé analyzes art's value in financial crisis and political repression.
- Wim Delvoye's Cloaca (2000) is a machine that produces excrement, conceived as a brand and enterprise.
- Delvoye issued convertible bonds at €3,000 each, yielding 1.3% annually, exchangeable for canned excrement.
- The bonds reference Marcel Duchamp's 1924 Monte Carlo bonds and Russian 1918 loan bonds.
- Delvoye claims to have anticipated the 2008 financial crash with his Cloaca project.
- Pussy Riot performed a punk protest in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour on August 17, 2012.
- Three activists, including Maria Alekhina, were sentenced to two years in labor camps for 'hooliganism'.
- Marcadé compares Pussy Riot to the Sex Pistols and sees their action as an antidote to financialization.
Entities
Artists
- Bernard Marcadé
- Wim Delvoye
- Marcel Duchamp
- Piero Manzoni
- Maria Alekhina
- Pussy Riot
- Vladimir Boukovski
- Diogenes
- Fernand Braudel
- Kazimir Malevich
Institutions
- artpress
- Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
- Flammarion
- Droz
Locations
- Moscow
- Russia
- United States
- Monte Carlo
- Côte d'Azur
- Delphes
- Angleterre
Sources
- artpress —