The abolition of art has been the aim of many avant garde movements. Most, or all, of them have misachieved the goal and finally they have become part of art themselves.

We may say that the abolition of art was impossible before the situationists because the theory wasn't fully developed. The situationists were successful with theory but hardly with practice. However, we may not put the blame on them for not practicing as their preached but their lack of practical accomplishment and their unpopularity amongst the hostile capitalist society are the main reasons why there still exists such a thing as art.

Situationists say that dada sought to abolish art without realizing it, and surrealism sought to realize art without abolishing it. The critical position since worked out by the situationists demonstrates that the abolition and the realization of art are inseparable aspects of a single transcendence of art.

This is to say that everyday life and art should reunite. In capitalism art itself is a commodity without use value. Some or even most indigenous cultures doesn't make a difference between art and everyday goods. This is what situationists sought.

To give an example, a dadaist may find garbage from the street and use it in her work of art demonstrating thus the devaluation of art. It's easy to see why art like this can be recuperated. But a situationist took a painting and used it as an ironing board. Practical! Detournement can be consider as realization of art. Nowadays Perl poetry is very close to it. I would like to see a cookbook consisting of poems as recipes. That would fall under the title of the node. Maybe I will some day rewrite the node in poetical fashion..

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