Szkice o (nie)oryginalności : konteksty i interpretacje

Abstract

Essays on (non-)Originality reflects on originality itself and on originality of the work of art. Originality is understood here as a relational and redefinable property within historically changeable circumstances and contexts. It is related to the act of questioning the objectivistic or essentialist reading of the work of art and qualities ascribed to it. As a result, also the autonomy, completeness, and independence of the artistic object – and, thus, the fixity of sets of notions used to describe it – have been questioned. “The myth of the work of art in itself” – allegedly capable of self-defining its specificity because of its substantiality – has been replaced here with the perspective of contextual entanglements; within their structure, originality proves to be negotiated instead of being settled once and for all. The questions raised in this text refer to historical ambiguity of originality, contexts of redefinitions, the discourse of modernity, and dilemmas connected to chosen phenomena of contemporary art, which – paradoxically – longs for originality and simultaneously undermines it in numerous ways. Therefore, the presented contexts of these reflections include both traditional art and the problems that multi-paradigmaticity of contemporary artistic practice, and the hybrid nature of conceptual and interactive art cause within the discourse of originality.