Dear Kettles Yard and Lutz Becker,
We are gravely concerned by the content of your upcoming exhibition “Modern Times”. Judging from the promotional material that we have come across, the works selected are all “4 Dimensional” works – and as such are promoting Fascist and Nazist perspectives. Also, besides the uncritical exhibition of Fascist and Nazi material, the exhibition, in mixing 4D with revolutionary “n-dimensional” work, lumps together and thereby confuses works supporting and supported by the Fascists, Bolshevics (Futurism, Constructivism, Suprematism) as well as their contemporary counterparts such as the CIA (Abstract Expressionism) – with Revolutionary Communist work (Dada) whilst also pointedly excluding other Revolutionary Left and Anti-Bolshevik Communist work (Surrealism, Lettrism, Situationism) which would clarify political differences within Modernist Art.
The 4th Dimension – I am sure you are aware, is a theory expounded by both the fascist Boccioni – as a method to influence both artists and audiences
with political memes – as well as the Nazi Heidegger who saw the 4th dimension as one of time – along with many others at the start of the 20th
century. The theories were taken up in different ways by the different modernist art movements - Futurists, Supremacists, Constructivists,
Dadaists (indeed these groups can be defined by their different approaches to the question of Euclidean space) - and while revolutionaries moved
forward into n-dimensional theory (Duchamp, Jorn) which broke with Euclidean space, reactionaries remained trapped in the 4th dimension and
trapped the viewer in it too. Of particular note in this situation is the tactic of the proto-fascists of Vorticism to compress many dimensions
worth of information into the one extra (4th) conceptual dimension. In this way they could make statements at a sub-conscious or subliminal level
without having to engage in defending their political positions. However the 4th dimensional viewpoint/ forcefield, whether as an 'intuitive'
dimension or as a spatialised dimension of time (intellect), only served to shut down consciousness, precisely at the point when Capitalism itself
was under threat during the First World War. The intellect was dismissed
as bourgeois - rooted in the the mechanical universe so beautiful
elucidated by Baron Kelvin. Intuition then became fetishised as a mystical
device which rapidly turns in on itself, becoming an essential aid to
remote control manipulation through codes and symbols, reaching its apogee
as a sequence of 0's and 1's.
It is Duchamp, whose Large Glass made the most public break with the
Euclidean 4th dimensional space to theorise an n-dimensional space. Asger
Jorn with Situgraphics continued in this trajectory out of the Euclidean
4th dimension. This struggle of course continued and continues into new
mediums. In film it was the Lettrists whose Hypergraphics overcoming
abstraction and introducing new dimensions of meaning into the 2D surface,
was continued into their critique of cinema, using dimensions of sight,
sound, thought, touch and taste which caused the creation of the Prix
d’Avant Garde at the Cannes film festival in 1951.
By lumping together 4th dimensionalists and n+1 dimensionalists, this
exhibition serves to trap us in the 4th dimension. Similarly, films such
as Swastika and Vita Futurista only serve to glorify Fascism and National
Socialism. They simply present the propaganda of these movements without
adding any new dimensions to our understanding and perspective. We are
surprised that you exclude from this exhibition filmic works such as those
of Lettrist Discrepant cinema whose radical critique of cinema would
reveal this. We are also very surprised that there is no consideration of
the politics behind these artists which would further reveal this.
2009 began with celebrations of 100 years of the proto Fascist Futurist
movement (see http://antisystemic.org/SW/AntiFuturist.pdf). The year went
on to see the British government sharing a platform with the fascist BNP.
So you must understand why this issue is of vital importance at this time.
It is not humanising of ‘monsters’ that we need to do, but realise that
rather than just individual celebrities and demigods, it is social
conditions and movements - class as well as individuality that creates
social change. Refugees, travellers and other persecuted groups in this
country in this time are fighting what they see as a holocaust and
genocide perpetrated against us by the British government. As cultural,
data and psychic workers, we must combat the very real dangers we face
today and to do this we must understand those of the past.
We look forward to your comments,
Daniel X
for the Cambridge Lettrist And Situationist Society (CLASS)
