Art for Art’s Sake and/or Socially Engaged Aesthetics (?): Stasys Banifacius-Ieva’s Interventions at Exhibition Openings

Abstract

Stasys Purys (Banifacius-Ieva), who made a name for himself for his interventions at the Mados Infekcija fashion festival and, particularly, at art exhibition openings, has been a sociocultural phenomenon on the Vilnius contemporary art scene over the past fifteen years. The case of Banifacius-Ieva calls for a deeper analysis of both the interventions themselves and the system of contemporary art (institutions) in Vilnius. To examine Banifacius-Ieva’s interventions at exhibition openings, the author of the article employs a materialist sociological approach to culture, the concept of institutional critique developed by Gerald Raunig and Gene Ray, as well as the insights of art critics Eglė Mikalajūnė and Agnė Mackevičiūtė. Such approach allows the author to view the object of study both as a sociocultural phenomenon and as a branch of artistic practice functioning within the system of contemporary art (institutions), and ultimately, as a distinct artistic phenomenon. Banifacius-Ieva’s status as an outsider within the art system is conceptually crucial to the emergence of interventions as a sociocultural phenomenon, which is converted into an artistic language and expressed through the pranskterian nature of interventions at exhibition openings. The principle of pranksterism merges the socio-ideological (activism) and aesthetic (art for art’s sake) aspirations of interventions into a conceptually ambivalent whole. This ambivalence simultaneously provokes internal tensions within the (Vilnius) contemporary art (institutional) system itself, as well as within art criticism and/or art history. Against the backdrop of these interpretations, one can note the lack of conceptual flexibility in art criticism and/or art history, and ultimately, the growing trend toward professional homogenization that has been taking place over the past fifteen years.