THEORETICAL OBSERVATORY

The Critical Device: Art that Reveals Itself

This is not about theoretically denouncing the mechanisms of mystification within contemporary art, but about staging them—materializing them through a device that functions simultaneously as a work of art and as a tool of demystification. The artistic operation begins with the awareness that the installation is precisely what it criticizes: an apparently random assemblage of objects that, once inserted into the artistic context, automatically acquire the status of an "artwork." But this transformation is immediately exposed and neutralized by the label “smoke in the eyes,” which acts as an interpretative short-circuit. The mechanism at play is double-sided, revealing a deep understanding of contemporary art world dynamics. On the one hand, the installation adopts all the formal codes of contemporary art: the use of varied materials, the apparent randomness of the composition, the semantic ambiguity of the assembled objects. On the other, the explanatory label does not provide the usual intellectualizing keys to interpretation, but instead bluntly unveils the mystifying nature of the operation.

The title “Smoke in the Eyes” takes on both a literal and programmatic value here: it designates precisely what a vast portion of contemporary art represents—a curtain of mystification that prevents one from seeing the emptiness of the content through the apparent complexity of the form. This creates what could be called a “critical estrangement effect.” The viewer is confronted with a paradox: the artwork explicitly declares itself to be a deception, yet continues to function as a work of art. It is impossible to look at it with innocence, because it has already deconstructed its own mechanisms of legitimacy. The mockery at work operates on several levels of social stratification. First, it mocks the audience that allows itself to be impressed by assemblages lacking authentic expressive necessity. Above all, it mocks the contemporary art system that has turned incomprehensibility into added value. The label “Contemporary Art” thus becomes an empty formula, a tag that can be applied to anything, provided it is placed in the appropriate context. The “smoke in the eyes” label acts as a mirror reflecting the art system’s own mystifying nature. The work does not situate itself outside the mechanism in order to criticize it; rather, it leverages the mechanism to self-destruct. The operation deserves credit for calling things by their name: what is often passed off as profound and meaningful art is, quite literally, “smoke in the eyes”—an optical and conceptual trick that makes what is empty seem substantial, what is banal seem complex, what is superficial seem deep.

The Fragility of Legitimizing Mechanisms

From a sociological perspective, this operation reveals the fragility of mechanisms of artistic legitimization. A simple label is enough to unmask the artificiality of an entire system of values. “Smoke in the eyes” thus becomes a metaphor for a broader condition: that of a society that has learned to mistake mystification for depth, obscurity for complexity. The subtlest irony of the operation lies in the fact that, by openly declaring itself a deception, the installation ends up being more honest and thus more authentic than many works presented as deep and significant. The paradox is that art which acknowledges its own emptiness paradoxically becomes more meaningful than art which boasts nonexistent meanings. In this sense, the critical device effects a true “clearing of the smoke”: through the explicit declaration of its own mystifying nature, the work restores transparency where the contemporary art system systematically produces opacity. It is an act of perceptual hygiene that allows one to see through the smoke screens of contemporary art.

Ultimately, “smoke in the eyes” is not only a criticism of contemporary art, but also a pedagogical device that educates the gaze, teaching viewers to see through mystifications. It is an act of mental hygiene that restores the public’s capacity for critical judgment, rescuing it from the condition of interpretative subordination to which it is often relegated. Authentic democracy requires the democratization of access to aesthetic experience. Art that systematically eludes understanding—that deliberately produces “smoke in the eyes”—does not contribute to cultural emancipation, but to its opposite: the reinforcement of dynamics of exclusion that perpetuate social injustice. Only art that recovers its communicative function can once again become a tool for social transformation, rather than for reproducing the status quo. This operation points the way toward a possible path: art that, instead of hiding behind apparent complexity, finds the courage to show itself for what it is. Art that, paradoxically, regains a dimension of authenticity—precisely by exposing its own artificiality—which the contemporary art system seems to have lost.

Contemporary Art. “Smoke and Mirrors” 1994-2025©. Wood, wool, porcelain, paper, candle. Dimensions: 110 x 95 x 30 cm.

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