DISMANTLINGS :: Guenther Rabl

REPLIES to letters within the scope of the Dismantlings

>> Reply from Weinviertel (2.10.2001)

Obviously, some of it went down the wrong tube!
What makes you believe you have to conclude that I am either calling for the ‘complete venality of art’ or its ‘unbounded arbitrariness’? How do you conclude that I make contributions to the festival for the ‘worthless creation of culture’ which are ‘therefore not worth showing’ ?? I see no prospect for your ‘hope for a discussion that will be stimulating, controversial, polemically held, but always suspenseful, also in the future’ when you react like a listening device to emotive words and place them ad libitum into a context that suits your purposes! Your view of artistic freedom, however, is odd: ‘The artist has the freedom of artistic expression. The consumer, the public, the promoter, the financial backer has the freedom of not accepting the artistic product.’ That’s what I call the courage to idyll! The public, which stands here like a fairy tale creature in the midst of the serious dimensions of a subsidized market economy, is in the fortunate position of not having to know at all what will be turned down in its name. However, an additional remark of yours, namely that I, as you say, awaken the impression ‘of wanting to attack everything and everyone who is working artistically in Lower Austria’ appears to me as being very revealing. I have long held the suspicion that several of these opportunity makers and hinderers, who unfortunately cannot be avoided to be touched upon in a cultural criticism, possibly consider themselves to be artists. In more than one case it is obvious: grand ideas, but unfortunately they haven’t learned anything smart to be able to realize them. What can someone become there, besides a curator or a festival director? – while the real creators of art, who all know themselves what they have to do, are degraded to stooges for grand ideas and themes: the creative proletariat.
Greetings from Waldviertel!

>> Sometimes I’d like to roll down the shutters and leave this land of plebes behind … (23.10.2001)

Dear Peter,
The German word ‘Banause,’ which is used to designate a cultural Philistine, comes from Greek and means nothing more than ‘craftsman, handworker.’ In antiquity, the word was often used in a derogatory sense, somewhat like our current ‘plebe.’ In this sense I would say: Oh, if it were only a ‘land of plebes.’ In any case, every time I drive past your big sculpture at the junction, I am very happy that, even under such adverse conditions, there are still true ‘Banausen,’ – namely, people who know a craft, an ‘art’ (because no difference was made between the two in antiquity).
‘A small story about my “Professor XXX” … A few years ago he appeared in some newspaper. In the article he was complaining that there was so little money in his house, he couldn’t even print the catalogues for his artists … In the photograph he was standing next to a pile of thin artist catalogues that were stacked up to form a tower … so far, so good, and not bad at all. However, now it’s coming… What do you think he was holding in his hands and into the camera lens? A concrete-slab-sized luxury catalogue with his visage on the cover – an edition printed up for him when he became president.’
I wouldn’t get any gray hairs about this. That is, as far as I can judge from the distance (and without knowing who is meant by “Professor XXX”), a totally normal power game. One demonstrates power, as everybody knows, by claiming obvious preposterousness unchecked. (An old, long-forgotten Englishman once called that ‘doublethinking’). However, this case even has something good to it: namely, your grandiose word creation ‘concrete-slab-sized luxury catalogue.’ I will allow myself to use it as a general metaphor from now on – that is, everywhere there is unfortunately no money, but, oddly enough, a ‘concrete-slab-sized luxury catalogue.’
Hearty Plebeian Greetings!

>> A declaration of love (6.11.2001)

Dear Johannes,
You put me in a big predicament! Please don’t ask me to pay dearly twice for my wisdom because of requited love! I am surely not prepared to hold ‘talks’ with people like Mr. X, let alone to offer talks – namely about whether Mr. X. is inclined to endorse performances of our music in the Minoritenkirche (He won’t do anything for it anyway, except to channel the money that we should also be receiving and to squeeze some of it out for himself). In any case, I would be willing to hold talks together with our colleagues about whether the tutelage of the Minoritenkirche and of contemporary music should be conferred to Mr. X. (My vote on it has to be clear …). This is just another cloak-and-dagger action of the provincial government. Has anyone asked us? – Or even just informed us about it?? I think I already understand the problem. They have some sticky dumpling heads parading as tenured officials who block a whole department (that of contemporary music, for instance) and who can’t be gotten rid of. In order not to create even more such positions, someone came up with the idea of outsourcing the competencies and having private persons and institutions attend to the sloppy assignments. For us, this only means that, along with the tenured dumpling heads, we now get some untenured dumpling heads who will block off the paths for us and who we won’t be able to deal with. I think we should not stop insisting that they solve their problems themselves. After all, they also don’t help us while we are composing! The provincial government has to be able to put together a department for contemporary music – they know that exactly. And then no one will any longer need such unnecessary ‘store managers,’ parading as curators, whose knowledge of the world’s art creation is only gleaned from the yellow press …
See you soon!

© Günther Rabl 2001
translated by Brian Dorsey
This text is understood as a literary work of art.
Quoting in context with a reference to the source is allowed until otherwise revoked.