History and Everyday Life

Abstract

In times of modernism, one of the most used and abused functions of art was its ability to produce meaning, make sense and promote social values and ends. For a long time it was believed that the business of artist and art is to promote history, while treating everyday life as its opposite was viewed as being of lower value and demanding less skill. This changed only in times of dissatisfaction with the outcome of history and in times of revolution, when the function of art became to invade, occupy and colonise everyday life – only to promote it as a decisive battlefield for historical goals and ends. It was often claimed that the post-modern conditions were to be the end of such projects. In socialist countries the reception of post-modern issues occurred under totalitarianism at its last gasp, while the desanctification of history, combined with the decolonisation of everyday life, were here strategic ends in a struggle for political and human emancipation as well. What happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall? Do we all live in the same world of the end of all ends? To answer this question, we have to examine art of the fall.