#1 LET ART SPEAK FOR ART
Matters of ART must be addressed in the language of ART.
Only art speaks for art.
All other voices speak about art.
To speak about something is to have ulterior motives.
E.g., politicians that speak about art, do so to score voting points.
#2 ART IS ESSENTIAL FOR SOCIETY
If ever there existed a society that did not produce art, there is no known record of it.
The artistic expressions of a society are proof that the society exists.
ART is society made manifest.
#ART, THEREFORE SOCIETY
#3 FREE ARTISTIC EXPRESSION IS ESSENTIAL FOR A FREE, OPEN AND
DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY
Free artistic expression is the epitome of freedom of expression of the people - article 19, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10.12.1948, Paris. To claim free artistic expression is to claim freedom of expression for the people.
WHEN ART’S CRITICAL VOICES ARE SILENCED, THE PEOPLE SUFFER
#4 KVADRENNALEN WELCOMES ALL THE VOICES OF ART THAT SPEAK FOR ART (#1) AND ITS ESSENTIAL PLACE IN SOCIETY (#2,3)
When legions of art voices speak one message, the one voice of art rings crystal clear, far and wide.
#5 THE ART WORLD HAS ALWAYS BEEN UNITED IN ITS BELIEF IN ART
The only way to show this shared belief and unity of the art world to the people, consequently changing the
general misconception that the art world is divided, is through art itself. (#1)
#6 ART AND THE INDIVIDUAL ART PRACTICE ARE IRREDUCIBLY
INTERDEPENDENT
One cannot exist without the other.
They bring mutual empowerment, where the one strengthens the whole and the whole powers the one.
When art is under threat every individual art practice is under threat.
When one individual art practice is under threat then the whole of art is under threat.
#7 KVADRENNALEN IS FREEDOM WITH RESPONSIBILITY
A shared, collective belief in art (#5) comes with a shared, individual art responsibility.
When political representatives - politicians or public institutions – fail to execute their societal assignment i.e., when political representatives do not secure free artistic expression’s essential place in a free, open, democratic society, then this assignment becomes the responsibility of the artists and art workers who materialise the society in
question through their artistic expression.
#POLITICAL_DISOBEDIENCE CALLS FOR #ARTISTIC_RESPONSIBILITY
#8 KVADRENNALEN BELONGS TO THE COLLECTIVE AND THE INDIVIDUAL
AT THE SAME TIME
KVADRENNALEN is about SHARED, DECENTRALISED OWNERSHIP: every artist, art worker, art curator, art lover, art space, art institution is accountable to claim the free arts’ essential place in society, for ART (#6). KVADRENNALEN’s success or failure consequently belongs to the united art world as a collective and every artist, art worker, art curator, art lover, art space, art institution, et al. individually.
#9 KVADRENNALEN IS TRANSDISCIPLINARY
The belief in ART (#5) is shared across all the art disciplines i.e. visual, sound, stage, performance, word, other.
ALL THE VOICES OF ART HAVE THEIR PLACE WITHIN KVADRENNALEN
#10 KVADRENNALEN IS NATIONWIDE
ART knows no boundaries in time or space.
The free arts are contextualised ART in time and space.
KVADRENNALEN’s only boundary is the boundary of the society in which it makes ART’s voice heard.
#11 KVADRENNALEN RUNS DURING ELECTION YEARS
The politics of the spectacle reach their cyclical height during election years, at which point the ulterior motives to speak about art rise to their climax, undeniably revealing the political threats to the free arts in the most open and unapologetic manner.
#12 THE ONLY CONCERN OF KVADRENNALEN IS ART AND THE SOCIETY MADE MANIFEST THROUGH ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
When art’s essential place, within the proposition that is society, is both established and recognised in society, both collectively and individually, this consequently safeguards ART from any and all political threats - at which point the outcome of an election has no impact whatsoever on art in society i.e. then it does not matter which political parties win.
KVADRENNALEN has no interest in changing the outcome of a political election.
KVADRENNALEN is only interested in art and the general perception of art in society at large.
#13 ART DOES NOT SEEK POWER, ART IS POWER
The pen, which is mightier than the sword, is and must always remain free to write, draw, choreograph, compose, code… in order to manifest society.
# ART LASTS, POLITICS FADE
KVADRENNALEN IS DEFINED, ORGANISED AND BOUND BY THIS MANIFESTO
AS ARE ALL BOUND BY THIS MANIFESTO THAT COME TOGETHER UNDER ITS BANNER
