Sentences on Scholart

When we realized that we have found a phenomenon, which is already quite old and which does yet not have any name, I wrote a manifesto to start the discussion with. Sentences on Scholart was published on this blog 12 Feb 2014, after a whole winter of discussions on how to proceed with our ideas.

SENTENCES ON SCHOLART

1. Scholart is not art.
2. Scholart is not research.
3. Artists cannot create scholart. A scholartist can have no identity as an artist, and cannot be taken seriously as one. Otherwise his/her scholart would be seen as art.
4. A scholartist uses contemporary artistic methods (installations, manifestos, etc.) to conduct theoretical discourse.
5. Scholart is always situated between art and theory.
6. Works of scholart cannot be explained in words only.
7. Scholart is outlaw, underground and outsiderish. If it ever becomes mainstream, serious-minded or codified, scholart has died.
8. Objects of scholart can include text, but the text shouldn't function as an explanation.
9. Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.
10. These sentences comment on scholart, but are not scholart.

Sentences on Scholart is an attempt to catch in a playful way what scholart is about. It refers to the following chain of artistic manifesto work:
Sol Lewitt Sentences on Conceptual Art
John Baldessari's comment on Lewitt's sentences
Bumsteinas' musical comment on Lewitt and Baldessari

(See also my tribute to Baldessari and Bumsteinas: I sing the sentences on scholart, filmed by Andrea Coyotzi Borja.)

Max Ryynänen