Le Joker au musée dans Batman de Tim Burton, ou le vandalisme artistique entre avant-garde et culture populaire

This article aims to identify the aesthetic and political stakes raised by artistic vandalism as practiced by the Joker at the Flugenheim Museum in Gotham City in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). The analysis takes as a starting point the use that Swiss-American artist Christian Marclay makes of this ver...

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Main Author: Pierre-Antoine Pellerin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Université de Bourgogne 2020-07-01
Series:Interfaces
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/833
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author Pierre-Antoine Pellerin
author_facet Pierre-Antoine Pellerin
author_sort Pierre-Antoine Pellerin
collection DOAJ
description This article aims to identify the aesthetic and political stakes raised by artistic vandalism as practiced by the Joker at the Flugenheim Museum in Gotham City in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). The analysis takes as a starting point the use that Swiss-American artist Christian Marclay makes of this very scene in Made to be Destroyed, a video exclusively composed of film scenes showing artworks being burnt, smashed, or defaced. Whereas the editing done by Marclay tends to reduce artistic vandalism to the compulsive repetition of the dialectics that connects creation and destruction, the playful iconoclasm practiced by the Joker and his gang reveals the symbolic violence produced by the aesthetic object and the universalist claims of the art museum as an institution, their performance being reminiscent of the ethos of 20th century avant-garde movements. Yet, their act of vandalism also undermines the very criteria that serve to establish the hierarchical distinction between “low culture” and “high culture”.
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spelling doaj-art-161dcf7718c24bf4b8ec344f82caf2e02025-08-20T03:10:41ZengUniversité de BourgogneInterfaces2647-67542020-07-0143112610.4000/interfaces.833Le Joker au musée dans Batman de Tim Burton, ou le vandalisme artistique entre avant-garde et culture populairePierre-Antoine PellerinThis article aims to identify the aesthetic and political stakes raised by artistic vandalism as practiced by the Joker at the Flugenheim Museum in Gotham City in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). The analysis takes as a starting point the use that Swiss-American artist Christian Marclay makes of this very scene in Made to be Destroyed, a video exclusively composed of film scenes showing artworks being burnt, smashed, or defaced. Whereas the editing done by Marclay tends to reduce artistic vandalism to the compulsive repetition of the dialectics that connects creation and destruction, the playful iconoclasm practiced by the Joker and his gang reveals the symbolic violence produced by the aesthetic object and the universalist claims of the art museum as an institution, their performance being reminiscent of the ethos of 20th century avant-garde movements. Yet, their act of vandalism also undermines the very criteria that serve to establish the hierarchical distinction between “low culture” and “high culture”.https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/833vandalismiconoclasmavant-gardepopular culturedestructioncreation
spellingShingle Pierre-Antoine Pellerin
Le Joker au musée dans Batman de Tim Burton, ou le vandalisme artistique entre avant-garde et culture populaire
Interfaces
vandalism
iconoclasm
avant-garde
popular culture
destruction
creation
title Le Joker au musée dans Batman de Tim Burton, ou le vandalisme artistique entre avant-garde et culture populaire
title_full Le Joker au musée dans Batman de Tim Burton, ou le vandalisme artistique entre avant-garde et culture populaire
title_fullStr Le Joker au musée dans Batman de Tim Burton, ou le vandalisme artistique entre avant-garde et culture populaire
title_full_unstemmed Le Joker au musée dans Batman de Tim Burton, ou le vandalisme artistique entre avant-garde et culture populaire
title_short Le Joker au musée dans Batman de Tim Burton, ou le vandalisme artistique entre avant-garde et culture populaire
title_sort le joker au musee dans batman de tim burton ou le vandalisme artistique entre avant garde et culture populaire
topic vandalism
iconoclasm
avant-garde
popular culture
destruction
creation
url https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/833
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