The place of art. Where? In a supermarket
The place of art. Where? In a supermarket

Summary/Abstract: The metaphor of a hypermarket or a supermarket is not particularly revealing, in fact it seems rather trivial and worn out, but it seems to be the best depiction of the present artistic situation in Eastern Europe. A supermarket connotes multiplicity and variety: the higher abundance of products, the better; something for everyone. But a supermarket is not a bazaar to which people come to sell their own products. A supermarket is managed by someone, someone decides about the selection of goods in the supermarket and where – in what section and on what shelf – they will be displayed. A supermarket is like a structured bazaar, subject to the regime of modern management. And finally all the products displayed in a supermarket become commodities because the overriding rule of the supermarket observed by all the supermarket employees is sale; the products which sell well if those we want to sell well are given most attractive places. Supermarkets, hypermarkets, shopping centers are the most visible exponents of the consumer culture, genuine shrines of consumption where everyone becomes a real or potential consumer, who has to be bewitched, charmed and seduced. The supermarket is to seduce the consumers. Seemingly, it gives the freedom of choice to consumers, but in fact, by using all sorts of tricks aimed at making places and goods magical, it guides their choices and decisions. Finally, which is not irrelevant in Eastern Europe, shopping center are perceived as Western implants, as symbols of Western lifestyle, commonly accepted evidence of the superiority of capitalist economy, the economy of abundance over the former ineffective economy of socialism, the economy of shortage from the times of real socialism. Today’s supermarket relates to the idea of art industry presented at the beginning of the 1990s by Jeffrey Deitch. Deitch wanted to show how the functioning of art changed in the 1980s. The metaphor of a supermarket shows how East European art has adjusted to West European art world, its rules, norms and concept of art.

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