MUSIC

Refuge: A Concert Series to Welcome the World

TUESDAY – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 – 23, 2023
8:00 PM

PAC NYC
251 Fulton Street, World Trade Center, Manhattan

$15-$120
TICKETS + INFORMATION

A few random thoughts, not meant to be connected. Art should do things, sure — but it shouldn’t tell you what it’s doing. Art requires ambiguity; things that just tell you what to think are op-ed. There might be such a thing as too much irony — particularly cheap irony — but the absence of irony might be worse. Personal improvement of the audience is not a purpose of art. Elephantine performing arts centers are almost certain to fall into blandness and sanctimony just by virtue of their size and the necessarily large constituencies they must serve/attract. Using progressive arts as a veil to cover up corporate and governmental malfeasance — indeed, the essential repugnant evil of an entire economic system — is disgusting and should not fool anyone. If instead of mouthing pieties while pretending to be making art, and in the bargain providing support to the interests behind the circumstances they are inveighing against, people would work actively to effectuate the overthrow of Global Capitalism, they would be doing a lot more good.

One more thought: it’s one thing to play whatever you want on a stage financed by, and hence bearing the logo of, some business interest. That’s just surviving as an artist under Capitalism. It’s another thing to have those interests (indirectly through their arts minions) dictate content (even though to all appearances the curators have complete independence and the best of intentions, and the content is “oppositional”: that’s the beauty part).

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Eat and drink on top of a skyscraper at Manahatta.