公共艺术与权力

The, Public Art and the Authority

1789年,当拿破仑指挥大军,准备发动金字塔战役的时候,对部下有过一句激动人心的名言:“战士们,在那金字塔的绝顶上,四十个世纪在俯视着你们!”一百多年以后的1944年6月,巴顿将军麾下的两个师自布列单尼向巴黎挺进,决心突破德国第7军的防线,一举解放巴黎。据巴顿和戴高乐将军的回忆,当时盟军和法国军队的将士是多么急切地渴望早日开进巴黎,凯旋门、埃菲尔铁塔。

Over a long period of time, the questions that have been existing are: how was 'the public taste' in the public art evolved? How was the personal will transformed into a kind of generally accepted customs? Who has acquired the power to make a decision for us on the selection of or the preference for this style, not that style? When we have got these mutual tastes, which of them are mandatory or regulated? What are those that we really like the best? Who has acquired the authority and put it into effect?The emergence of the public art presupposes the appearance of the social statum and its emergence and development require the social, political and cultural conditions.The complexity of the authority in the public art also lies in another problem: even if the individual rights are guaranteed in the modem urban society and the public art has attained the individual's social being as its prerequisite, Will it be more beneficial to the evolution of the public 'mutual understanding' and the development of the public art?When the individual freedom and property get a fnll guarantee, the money will be.an equally powerful authority. The people With more riches will form a stronger benefit group to determine and pursue a certain style and taste of 'the public art'.The public art is a sociological problem rather than an artistic problem, an aesthetic problem and a technical problem.It is a determination, a bestowal and an inculcation rendered by a small number of people with the authority. In fact, it is a process in which, taking the will of the authority, the authoritative sources created the taste and pursued the taste by force until the taste was finally accepted by the public.Under the current circumstances, it is the most important task to optimize the authority structure, to set up a relatively perfect procedure and system to exercise the authority, especially to set up a constrained system to exercise the authority over the public art.