CRISE EM ARTE?

Abstract

Vilém Flusser’s (1920–1991) unpublished article “Crisis in Art?” presents a dense and provocative analysis of cultural transformation and the role of art in the contemporary world. Flusser examines the tensions between “elite art” and “mass art,” arguing that the artistic crisis reflects wider structural changes, such as cultural fragmentation and the alienation of the masses. He proposes a transition toward a dialogical, collaborative art embedded in everyday life, which poses a stimulating challenge to both artists and society. The text was kindly made available for publication by the Vilém Flusser Archive São Paulo, with the decisive support of its Research Director, Prof. Dr. Diogo Bornhausen, in transcribing the manuscript and clarifying its possible dating. Although it is not possible to determine the exact moment of writing, there are strong indications that it was composed in the early 1970s, prior to Flusser’s move to Europe – a hypothesis supported both by the centrality of the theme in his reflections from that period and by the typographical compatibility of the typescript with other texts of the same era.