Karl Gotter

'"Fingered By an Angel" is investigating the situation of the Rietveld Academie, which is in a financial crisis, evoking the image of a baroque church and a frozen sky fall. Through its ornaments and decorative splendor the baroque church brings heaven down to earth, while more literally bringing the viewers down to earth.

 

What happens when the sky falls on your head? Rococo as the final stage of Baroque turned into absurdity, the moment it reached its extreme was the moment it broke. The “autonomous” academy that performatively defines itself through being inclusive, non-hierarchical and transparent, is confronted with its material reality of having to implement its own budget cuts. The self defining principles, stemming from the zeitgeist of the counterculture of ’68, the founding year of the academy, were effortlessly transformed through the neoliberal ideology that is omnipresent in Amsterdam today.

 

In a time of progress reversing, structural change is needed more then ever. Neoliberal traps that, in a progressive disguise, outsource overarching problems onto individual students, staff and teachers breed bitter disillusionment. Our illusionary autonomy only decorates the reality of the erosion of our commons. Like the putti, the baby angels in Catholic paintings or churches deliver small messages, shoot arrows of affection and take part in the overall plot but never have a leading role.