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All
of these symbols remain symbolic: they do not transform themselves,
as with American pop artists, into new icons which must be
perceived as classic museum works, or rather as religious
art. This sensual-contemplative approach which extracts the
sign as an element from its original sign system and use it
as an autonomous image which is not bound to any sign system
is foreign to Kunc. Therefore, it is not possible to grasp
his "Ost-Pop" as simply the transfer of pop-art
methodology into a new subject area. Eastern iconography,
which is at its foundation ideological and ascetic, demands
an entirely different perception of symbols than Western commercial
advertising which builds upon mere sensuality and erotic temptation.
"Ost-Pop" is first of all based upon work with a
different Eastern understanding of signs and
artwhich for Kunc urgently and fundamentally influences and
changes the economy of his work.
The
imagery of Eastern communist ideology was poor in comparison
with that of everyday Western life and offered no immediate
attractiveness. Eastern posters, slogans, exhortations, and
symbols were simple, monotonous, and boring: they did not
attract attention and remained nearly unnoticed despite their
ubiquitousness. Even in the East, the idea was often mistakenly
held that they were therefore insufficiently effective and
that it was necessary to artistically improve 'visual propaganda'.
Such proposals were always unsuccessful, however, and their
failure was not coincidental. Every citizen of the East bloc
grew up surrounded by the ruling ideology. Its world view,
its discourse with every possible nuance and undertone, its
guiding values and idiosyncrasies were so intimately known
that ideology became for each individual matter-of-fact
almost subconscious. It is unnecessary to advertise such ideology
or to make it enticing. On the contrary, every attempt to
make it linguistically or visually more interesting created
a blasphemous impression because it patently rejected the
ideology itself and tried to link it to something heterogeneous.
Someone once pointed out that, so far, no well-painted Christian
canvas has ever been worshipped as a miraculous icon.
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