Culture is future »

03.31.2016

Contribution: "Enterprising culture" by Emmanuel Ethis

Walter Benjamin, in his time, raised the issue of the future of the work of art in the era of its technical reproducibility. By doing so, he questioned the meaning of the relations that grow and flourish between culture and entrepreneurship. The aim is not to fall into demagoguery, but we had the opportunity to realize it with Disney, it is by exploring the edge of the film industry and by claiming the role of animation within creation, that the inventor of Mickey invented the 20^th century art of animated movies, which only became established after many years. Playful arts, video games could not exist without the formal frame of their company, and this company carrying them becomes unique in comparison to other companies, because it lives from creation and creators that can be recognized by the public as well as expert figures and critiques.

Contrarily to what Benjamin was afraid of, there was no disembodiment of art in the space of its reproducibility, no more than a reduction of the aura of the work of art. On the contrary, its democratization would enhance its value, reinforced by the community from which its acknowledgment comes from. The opposition between entrepreneurship and culture is an aporia regarding the performances, taken in the instant and reflecting the authenticity of a unique representation, because they create a proper enhancement space. In fact, the idea of performance is related to the market, and questions the market economy, because it is not submitted to short-term negotiation, nor to competition per say.

Indeed, the market economy should be renamed more accurately « market ecology », at the junction of culture, art and entrepreneurship, by examining from all sides the sociology attached to traditional markets, because the market ecology at the intersection of art and entrepreneurship is imperfect. But it creates charm: it only obeys to dominant positions relying on the values of cultural transmission, artistic education and shared culture, suffers no monopole, always plays on a surprise effect connected to the deep anthropological meaning of what structures the new symbolic networks of what precisely makes us “symbolize”, individually, collectively, and perhaps universally.