| Introduction |
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In Remodel[l]ing Reality (Package Do not Erase...) I made the claim that the ultimate purpose of art and philosophy is to enrich ourselves and the world. This point of view emphasises the belief that humans have the opportunity to deepen the awareness of who they are, what place they occupy in the world and what meaning they assign to themselves in their individual lives. The tools for enrichment are experience and reflection. In the course of life we collect and carry with us in our backpack all sorts of experiences, memories, emotions, and feelings. Turned into stories about ourselves and the world we are living in, these testimonials function as a means to establish the continuity of our identity in the world. At the bottom of the backpack, deep down in some corner, we can find our genius loci: the warden with the keys. With the help of our warden, we are able to bring back the insights we have gained from experience and reflection into the world again 'anew' - in order to enrich this world for ourselves and future generations. Testimonial in art becomes evaluation by artists' peers and professors, yet in philosophy it amounts to judgement. |
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In both cases, our testimonies are a source of knowledge, but the nature and the outcome of this knowledge differs. InstallationPackage BackPack relates epistemology as a philosophical discipline with installation art as a subfield of conceptual art. Central questions of epistemology - concerning truth, reason and objectivity as they pertain to testimony - are investigated artistically. And distinctive features of art - ambiguity, visuality and subjectivity - are subjected to epistemological enquiry. And a third party is taken into active concideration: the audience with its social and political dynamics.
The relation between artist and audience shows itself in the discussions, reviews and trade, as the work of art challenges (particular) community values in bringing them to the audience's consciousness. In the (re)evaluation of values by the artist, the audience is persuaded to think them over again. In the (re)evaluation of values by the audience, the artist is able to (re)consider her role and reflect on her position within the community. |
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