현대미술의 원시주의에 대한 연구

Study on the Primitivism in Contemporary Art - With a Focus on 《Magiciens de la terre》(1989)

Seeing the African sculptures, modernism artists in the early 20th century had wanted the fundamental return of Western civilization. We call this movement ‘primitivism’, preoccupied with the values and the figures of the non-Western. There are two important exhibitions about primitivism in contemporary art ; one is 《“Primitivism” in 20th Century: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern》(1984) of the MoMA, New York. The other is 《Magiciens de la Terre》 (1989) at Centre Georges Pompidou and Grande Halle de La Villette, Paris. Especially, 《Magiciens de la Terre》 directed by Jean-Hubert Martin sought to overcome the relic of colonialism that 《“Primitivism” in 20th Century》 had failed to leap. 《“Primitivism” in 20th Century》 had paved the formal resemblance between tribal art and modernism art in the name of ‘affinity’, had decontextualized tribal art from his own background, and had reintroduced it into the modernism’s context. 《Magiciens de la Terre》 did not choose the methode of parallel, comparison or contrast, but tied tribal objets and art works together to show that they came from one branch of art. Curatorial team visited the ateliers of the artists, chose 50 artists in the center of art world and 50 artists in the margins of art world. Artists came to work ‘in situ’ in Paris, and their works were displayed without classification of region, genre, etc. The ‘magic’ of the title of the exhibition was to put the spirituality of art in the front of the exhibition, and the ‘terre’ was to express the will to go beyond the frame Western/non-western, the self/the other, civil/savage and to represent the meaning of ‘the whole earth’. Therefore, 《Magiciens de la Terre》 can be considered as postmodern exhibition to challenge the distinction between Western/non-Western, high art/popular art, avant-garde/kitsch, and to try ex-define art. In addition, it was an exhibition that marked to public the existence of contemporary art outside the western world and led to productive debates in art including postcolonialism.