Marcello Faletra critiques the contemporary abuse of the word 'beauty'

In a critical essay published in Artribune Magazine #35, artist and writer Marcello Faletra examines the current inflation of the word 'beauty' in public discourse. He argues that beauty has become a vague, messianic term invoked by festivals, seminars, and exhibitions as a remedy against societal 'ugliness.' Faletra traces the concept's historical misuse, citing Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who considered the Buchenwald forest—site of a death camp—beautiful. He references Walter Benjamin's dictum that every document of culture is also one of barbarism. Faletra contrasts this with Sam Rodia's self-built Watts Towers, which Rodia himself deemed valueless, and a tourist who admires the Parthenon solely for its beige color. The essay contends that modern art, from Rimbaud onward, abandoned beauty as a central concern, leaving the term to be co-opted by advertising and operational language. Faletra suggests that in a world of war, economic disaster, and environmental catastrophe, beauty functions like a saloon prostitute in Westerns: it prettifies cruelty for a handful of dollars.