The philosopher, art gallerist, and curator for over 30 years Hubert Thurnhofer (www.thurnhofer.cc) is organizing the virtual exhibition entitled:
OPINION & JUDGMENT
and inviting artists from all over the world to show their creativity and talents by creating artworks related to the aforementioned subject, opinion and judgment.
www.thurnhofer.cc offers the following services:
1) Publication of an article about all participating artists with their individual statements on the subject of the exhibition Opinion & Judgment on kunstsammler.at
(see e.g. themed exhibition "Earthbound and Damaged")
2) Publication of all accepted works of arts based on the topic on kunstsammler.at
(see for example: theme exhibition "Christmas 2020")
3) Publication of an article about the exhibition (at least 4 pages) in one of the most popular art magazines in Austria, VERNISSAGE, issue 351, with images of all works in the exhibition.
Release Date: February 20, 2021.
Guaranteed minimum size of the illustration: 49 cm2 (7x7 cm)
One VERNISSAGE magazine for each for free
4) Promotion of the exhibition on Facebook, Instagram, XING
5) Promotion of the exhibition via the gallery's newsletter to 3,600 subscribers.
At least 13, maximum 29 participants
Eligible: all submissions with
- Photo of the work of art (resolution 300 dpi), art in all forms, such as paintings, statues, etc.
- technical data on the work of art: title, technique, format
- Short comments on the topic: at least one sentence or more, up to maximum 200 words
sent to Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein! by January 31, 2021.
Price per participant in this exhibition: 150 euros including VAT
(c) Foto: Bob Hailwax - - - Deutsche Fassung dieser Seite
OPINION & JUDGMENT
Every opinion is, first of all, a prejudice. Hopefully, this apodictic statement arouses contradictions, because the Basic Law of 1867, which is still part of the Austrian constitution today, guarantees the right to free opinion as a fundamental value.
By the grace of the Emperor at that time, however, the patriarchy has continued to severely restrict freedom of expression in state and church organizations, as well as in businesses and families. Who, at the beginning of the 20th century, could have allowed himself to contradict the opinion of his own father?
It was only after the end of the Second World War that people developed from being subject to the state to becoming self-confident citizens that finally helped freedom of expression (at least in the democratically constituted countries of the world) to break through. The 1949 UN Declaration of Human Rights made a decisive contribution to this breakthrough. Article 19 reads: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.“
Since 1949, the world and people have changed massively. In the past, people were naturally part of a class and each class was “naturally” part of the whole, but today people are primarily individuals. Subordination to the whole is no longer desirable. Humanity as a whole only exists as a fiction next to humans as individuals.
The whole is more than the sum of its parts, goes an old philosophical wisdom. Today applies: the whole is only the sum of its parts and no part has more rights than the other part. Everyone has the right to be right - means: No opinion is more right or wrong than the other. In the end, no opinion is right or wrong. The search for the truth ends there, the truth itself has left the discourse.
While it is obvious to everyone that the social divide is widening - wider than at times when it was difficult to escape one's community or class - we live in the dubious certainty that the opinions of the rich and the super-rich are as much or as little count like the opinions of the middle class or those at risk of poverty.
For the poor, in particular, their opinion is often the only thing that nobody can take away from them. The development of individualism has helped everyone guard his or her opinion like a treasure, the development of democracy has helped everyone enjoy the right to express his or her opinion, and the development of the Internet media has helped everyone have the opportunity to publish his opinion.
All of these developments have not contributed to the fact that people care about an informed formation of their opinions. So many opinions stick to prejudice. Therefore I repeat at this point: Every opinion is first of all a prejudice, because the freedom to express every opinion implies for many people the freedom from the obligation to justify their opinion. This is a mistake. This is my opinion.
Every preliminary judgment can only be confirmed or refuted by a judgment. It is common and legitimate for a plaintiff to present his views on a dispute in court. However, as long as no justifications has been presented, as long as no counter-arguments and evidence have been presented, every opinion remains a preliminary judgment. Only the weighing of all arguments by the judge enables the judgment.
I am therefore sharpening my opinion: the undesirable development of freedom of expression, which on closer inspection reveals itself to be arbitrary opinion in many cases, is one of the reasons for the undesirable developments in our democracy. I leave it to the reader - especially the participating artists in the exhibition - to judge this opinion.
