Abstract
This article discusses the displayed fake paintings (belonging to the Portuguese Judiciary Police Museum) at the 'CCC' exhibition (Collecting, Collections and Concepts… Guimarães, 2012) and the issue of forgeries in general, from a comprehensive semiotic point of view.
The text begins by defending that the distinguishing mark of these fakes is not their aesthetical quality, but their semiotic charge as 'criminal objects', linked to mythical themes of transgression and restoration of order, revitalized in contemporary times by crime fiction in an exuberant and 'transvisually' (Bolter and Grusin 2000) contaminating way.
The text then focuses on the fakes as fetishes, at different levels, that flourish in the propitious environment of financial speculation, glamor, and “hysterization of attention” (Brandt 2004) of contemporary art. Finally, the text maintains that the ‘musealization’ of the fakes took place above all through rehabilitation rituals that, following the most traditional museological ideals, grant them pedagogical values and objectives. In the end, the text concludes that malgré tout, the new expurgated and musealized fakes maintained their inherent atavistic ambiguity, which confers them as much vivid as controversial fascination.
The text begins by defending that the distinguishing mark of these fakes is not their aesthetical quality, but their semiotic charge as 'criminal objects', linked to mythical themes of transgression and restoration of order, revitalized in contemporary times by crime fiction in an exuberant and 'transvisually' (Bolter and Grusin 2000) contaminating way.
The text then focuses on the fakes as fetishes, at different levels, that flourish in the propitious environment of financial speculation, glamor, and “hysterization of attention” (Brandt 2004) of contemporary art. Finally, the text maintains that the ‘musealization’ of the fakes took place above all through rehabilitation rituals that, following the most traditional museological ideals, grant them pedagogical values and objectives. In the end, the text concludes that malgré tout, the new expurgated and musealized fakes maintained their inherent atavistic ambiguity, which confers them as much vivid as controversial fascination.
| Translated title of the contribution | The Performance of the Fake and the Collection of the Illicit: Fetishes, Market - and Museums |
|---|---|
| Original language | Portuguese |
| Title of host publication | Collecting, Collections and Concepts - Uma viagem iconoclasta por coleções de coisas em forma de assim |
| Editors | Paulo Mendes, Sandra Vieira Jürgens |
| Place of Publication | Guimarães |
| Publisher | Fundação Cidade de Guimarães / IN.TRANSIT Editions. |
| Edition | Mendes, Paulo, and Jürgens, Sandra Vieira |
| Publication status | Published - 2013 |