The fifth concert of the “Manifestos” series

A manifesto is a form of art’s other-being. Why does an artist need words? Perhaps they become necessary at moments of crisis, when the artist’s intention cannot be perceived otherwise. The first manifesto of the modern era belongs to the realist painter Gustave Courbet (1855), who broke decisively with the academicians and believed that “painting can consist only in the representation of real things”. Anti-academic tendencies also influenced the formation of new groups, for example the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) and the “Mighty Handful” in Russia. But the manifesto truly flourished in the 20th century — a time of global social and cultural transformation. At the beginning of the century, noise took the place of instrumental sounds, and Romantic aesthetics gave way to the simplicity of street art. New artistic forms were brought by the post-war period, by 1968 and by the era of the digital revolution. The manifestos that accompanied artistic innovations constitute a special domain of 20th-century art. They are an attempt to convey in words what can be expressed only by musical means — a gesture of despair on the one hand, and of resolve on the other.