Thomas Hirschhorn: "Gramsci Monument" | Art21 "Extended Play"

[@bumrapp7]

As a member of the "Skullsnaps Group"we were proud to contribute to this project and lending our music a song called "Turn it up" to help inspire & motivate our communities to be all that we can be!

[@art21org]

"I don't do something for the community. I do something, I hope, for art and the understanding of art. My goal is this." -Thomas Hirschhorn, in a new episode from the ART21 "Exclusive" series, on creating "Gramsci Monument" (2013) at the Forest Houses complex in the Bronx, New York #ThomasHirschhorn #art

[@deelot1]

It's interesting how the artist asserts a clear distinction between art and community. Who does the art serve then? I find the artist's intentions rather high-handed and exploitative of the community he uses for his work. I don't believe in site-specific artist residencies where they are allowed to come into a community & act evangelically and then just pisses off like Hirschhorn seems to be. I felt sorry for some of the participants who really fell under the spell of the artist. Real empowerment for a community is when the community are responsible for making their own work freely & independently without the need for a direct artist intervention in my humble opinion. I really wish this community achieve the actual purpose and direction they are clearly seeking in making now that the artist has long gone...

[@RyanPaulMcCarthy]

+deelot1 Its funny because the work is this egalitarian format... Gramsci's monument like communism itself is associated with dictatorship and here the artist (insomeways) acts as dictator... one who hopes to nudge to enlighten the working class.. it makes the work more of a caricature than an exercise, but as an art of its execution we cant expect the same expereince as an 3rd person onlooker. Its in the freeing moment brought out by the installation in person... as a participant.

[@deelot1]

I agree with you on this - it does look like Hirschhorn acting like some small-scale communist dictator here and as an onlooker this caricature made me cringe! I am not sure how freeing the moment was for the participants though, because if they didn't do what Hirschhorn said, they would have been excluded from the project! I am also not sure how consciously aware the participants were in this project of Hirschhorn's intentions or the framework or context they were operating within this installation/monument. This didn't seem fair to me - it wasn't a level playing ground between the artist and the participants and yes maybe that was the point. However, given that many of the participants were from a vulnerable section in society, who gave a lot of their time and energy for free while no doubt Hirschhorn was earning a commission from it, I just feel they were overall exploited for this project.

[@willdurant141]

+Ryan Paul McCarthy communism in theory absolutely does not associate with dictators, quite the complete opposite. It calls for the "dictatorship of the proletariat", meaning the proletariat collectively having the final say on how a society is run, not by the word of some patriarchal dictator. Hirschhorn utterly butchers Gramscian thought.

[@valvalvalval25]

@@deelot1 I believe the participants were paid, but how much I do not know, i heard in another video they were employed for the brief duration of the monument. I do overall agree with you though

[@langjiejian1483]

If you watch it carefully, the artist said that he was not here to help the community, he was inviting the community to help him with his art, and that people allowed him to do so. He does not intend to be a savior, nor does he intend to be neutral, completely isolating himself from black community. I think that's why people say "Tom is not white not European , he is black." By the way, how many people have much interaction with their community beyond so called compassion, he as least lived with them for two months, how about you?

[@emilywong4601]

Is this part of the maker movement or urban renewal?

[@fatepubgm5727]

Thomas is not whit he’s not European “he’s BLACK” ⚪️👄⚪️

[@valvalvalval25]

LMFAOOOO I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE that shit KILLED me

[@SilhouetteJudas]

He just personally gave that man the n-word pass

[@emilywong4601]

Diy urban renewal?

[@RyanPaulMcCarthy]

+Emily Wong Haha its great... its great that contemporary artistic practice can incite such a range of situations outside of a traditional gallery context... or inside of it. These people are characters in their own lives and in Thomas' participatory work, bringing with it a potentiality for mindfulness... to themselves and their communities.

[@JimBob_KY]

LEX!!!!

[@aygenesisx3]

This is 100% giving me white saviour complex energy and I hate it. What is he actually serving this community? He's just using poor Black people for art's sake... he literally said he is not doing it for the community. If this project is about monuments why wouldn't he do this elsewhere, why the projects?

[@audreyh6628]

If you look into his work more you will realise he is not exploiting these communities at all. He creates monuments that function as galleries and libraries and put them in disenfranchised communities, precisely to combat the elitism that means these communities are not given access to those things...that they are seen as 'too stupid, too criminal' etc to deserve intellectual stimulation. He is saying he's not doing it for the community because he does not want it to be seen as some kind of community welfare or charity - literally trying to avoid being a white saviour. I don't think this video painted his intentions very well, which is a real shame.

[@AncientMarinerNY]

These artists are so full of it. All Humans are intellectuals? yeah sure 3:52 unless you interfere with his project, then he is the artist and you should get out of the way. He only needs you as a pawn in his plan. This thinking has infected America's elite. They want recognition and the power that comes with it but zero actual responsibility.

[@daniellykaufmann]

"thomas is not white, he is not european, he is black"

[@willdurant141]

What an utter butchering of Gramscian thought.