동부 유럽의 예술 상황: 탈사회주의적 포스트모더니즘을 중심으로

Abstract

In this article we will concentrate our view on the situation of the European art scene, especially the situation of East Europe around the year 1990. The reason for concentrating on this era is to explore the relationship between the development of art and the dismantling of real existing socialist countries, especially regarding the dissolution of the USSR. This task requires inevitably the approach of comparison with the concurring western system, as well as a sight on the endogenous development of the socialist system itself. The changes within the system did not suddenly occur in the 1990s but were derived from former revisions in the 1950s, following the death of Josef Stalin. Nonetheless, the radical changes of the Perestroika since 1985 finally put an end to the political system of socialism. This article, in its main part, deals with the phenomena of socialism, post-socialism, nationalism and post-modernism which evolved in the arts of East-Europe around the year 1990. These changes however are not limited to the actual art scene but can also be observed in the theoretical engagement of Aesthetics. Unfortunately the great classics of Marx, Engels and Lenin have left a lack in this particular field of interest. The late publication of The Basics of Marx-Leninist Aesthetics in 1960, which followed a vast repression from the political side, is an indication how difficult it was to develop a theory of arts in this setting. The politically distorted arts of the late socialist era can easily be regarded as a temporary phenomenon based on its particular historical and political conditions, which are now to be seen as part of the past. Even so, in the current Korean situation, where we eventually have to deal with the North-Korean version of a similar political setting, the occupation with the subject will hopefully shed some light on the future.