Christian Caliandro on Art as Relational Practice and the Infantilization of Society

In a personal essay on Artribune, art historian Christian Caliandro critiques contemporary society's fear of an unpredictable future, leading to paternalistic control and mass infantilization driven by politics, entertainment, art, culture, fashion, and technology. He argues that adults are transformed into 'big children' requiring constant stimulation and simplified messages. Caliandro then reflects on the artist's necessary distance from action to create meaningful work, citing Rebecca and Anaïs Nin, and references Helen Hester's 'Xenofemminismo' (Nero, Rome 2018) on the 'wild' character of reproduction as undermining replication of the identical. He advocates for art that discovers new zones of feeling and reorganizes reality, dismissing artists who do not pursue this. Caliandro describes his own projects—'La Notte di Quiete' at ArtVerona in Verona, 'Opera Viva Barriera di Milano' in Turin for Flashback, and 'Matera Alberga' with Francesco Cascino for Matera 2019—as realizations that simplicity and sincerity are paramount. He argues that art should disappear into context, rejecting exhibition spaces as deceitful, and insists that true art functions only in everyday life as a human relationship based on vital exchange, not as a dead object. The essay includes references to Felice Casorati's 'Tiro al bersaglio' (1919) and Judy Chicago's 'Earth Birth' (1983).