Marcin Borchardt

Angeles Have No Shame. Transgression in New York Cinema

The creative act as a form of human activity, the aim of which is to create value usually in the world of art called "work", is of a processual nature. Transgression is one of many possible forms of this process. Defined as a violent, radical, irreversible act of creation – an emanation of artist's freedom, consisting in, conscious or not, disturbing, transgressing, and breaking social rules, laws, or cultural norms in force in society. Transgression is aimed at evoking a specific artistic effect, the consequences of which are unpredictable and remain outside any control of the creator.

The dissertation consists of two parts. The first, "In Search of the Essence of Transgression" is an attempt to find the answer to the question of what transgression is. Crossing the borders of personality, self, social role, gender, norms and prohibitions, has a completely different meaning depending on the context – artistic, literary, philosophical, biographical, anthropological or film. Transgressive border experience often becomes a testimony to a mental transformation attempt – an individual, group or society, in a certain autonomous universe strictly conditioned socially and culturally. Part two, ”Made by New York (New York Underground, No Wave Cinema, Cinema of Transgression)" is a case study. A monograph of three trends of the New York avant-garde film, analyzed by the perspective of transgressive activities for several decades. The independent, individualized, non-institutional circulation of culture has brought artists the illusion of artistic freedom, the result of which in the domain of cinematography was aesthetic radicalism. Short and full-length fictional forms, documentaries, music videos, artistic actions, feminist manifestos, experimental pornography, anarchist television programs, the works often shocking with transgressions for their creators were a form of expressing active opposition to the oppressive reality.

The work is complemented by bibliography and filmography of the subject.

29 sierpnia 1952 roku w sali Maverick Concert Hall w Woodstock w stanie Nowy Jork ma miejsce historyczne wydarzenie wielkiej wagi. Podczas premierowego wykonania nowego dziela Johna Cage’a pianista David Tudor trzykrotnie otwiera i zamka klape fortepianu ani razu nie dotykając jego klawiatury. Kompozycja zatytulowana „4’33” napisana jest na „milczący fortepian”. To utwor, ktorego sie NIE gra! Dla krytykow i publiczności zart jest kiepski. Dziś, w zalezności od indywidualnego punktu widzenia „4’33” mozna interpretowac na setki sposobow.

August 29, 1952, in Maverick Concert Hall, Woodstock: a historic event takes place. The pianist David Tudor closes and opens the piano lid three times, without touching the keyboard itself, during the premiere performance of John Cage’s new composition. This piece, called 4′33′′ has been written for a “silent piano.” It is a composition that is NOT to be played! Critics and the audience find the joke poor. Today, depending on the individual point of view, 4′33′′ might be interpreted in hundreds of different ways.
Keywords: John Cage, 2oth Century Avant-Garde, experimental music.

An act of creation, as a form of human activity whose aim is to bring new value into the world of art, is of processual character. Transgression is one of many possible forms of this process. It is de ned as a violent, radical, irreversible act of creation, an emanation of the artist’s freedom which consists in disturbing, transgressing, and breaking social rules, laws, or cultural norms – willfully or not – in order to cause a certain artistic effect whose consequences are unpredictable and remain completely outside of the creator’s control. In the second half of the 20th century, a group of radicals calling themselves Wiener Aktionsgruppe began to dangerously balancing​ on the verge of crime. Art, based on the acts of transgression, acquired a role as a tool of social critique, a total negation of the values represented in the “society of dwarves,” a resistance towards a dysfunctional reality. Aesthetic terrorism was a weapon of provocation, a manifestation of a revolt, an attempt to make any kind of change, or simply a distinct approach to aesthetic value. The paper analyses the creative attitudes of Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Günter Brus, Hermann Nitsch, and Otto Muehl, and the causes and consequences of their transgressions. The author also investigates the evolution of the reception of the Viennese Actionists as an example illustrating the dangerous process of getting accustomed to transgression in the course of a slow assimilation of all artistic extremisms inspired by political interest.
Keywords: Viennese Actionism, cultural anthropology, transgression, social criticism.