Marcello Faletra on the 'Communism of Forms' and Artistic Borrowing

In an editorial for Artribune Magazine #31, Marcello Faletra explores the concept of a 'communism of forms' — a pre-modern practice where artists freely borrowed poses and stylistic models from one another, with distinction lying in execution rather than originality. He contrasts this with the modern cult of originality, citing Édouard Manet's copying of Goya, Velázquez, Tintoretto, and Giorgione as a countercurrent. Marcel Duchamp redefined the artist as a chooser rather than a creator. Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera borrowed 25 verses from François Villon, leading to plagiarism accusations; Karl Kraus defended Brecht, arguing the citation was more 'original' in its new context. Sherrie Levine's re-presentation of Duchamp's Fountain raises the question of whether a citation can surpass its original. Faletra links this to intellectual property, noting Brecht's alignment with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's view that property is theft, and his argument that forms are a common good, like folk songs that evolve through generations. Guy Debord emphasized the power of détournement to liberate forms from their original meaning. The editorial concludes with a school graffito: 'Copying is beautiful.'