Contra el Arte : y otras imposturas

The adverb “contra” (against) that introduces this book should be understood not only in its most common sense—implying confrontation and offense—but also in the sense that denotes the solidity of a support structure. I have positioned myself “against” art and other institutional concepts much like someone leaning “against” a wall that both shelters and constrains us. These are the walls of metaphysics, science, morality, politics, religion, the socially and aesthetically agreed-upon ways we experience emotion, philosophy, and art theory—walls we erected to sustain, defend, or protect ourselves, yet which, once they become solid, prevent us from seeing what lies on the other side, from crossing beyond the known realm and learning new ways of walking, existing, and relating to things; and, what is worse, they make us forget that we were the ones who built them in the first place.