بازخوانشي از هنر و سياست در نمايشگاه‌هاي جهاني اكسپو

Rereading Art and Politics in International Expos

در زيست‌جهان فرهنگي عصر مدرن، نخستين بار نخبگان سياسي- فرهنگي بريتانيا پديده‌اي چندبعدي از نمايشگاه‌هاي جهاني به نام اكسپوي كريستال پالاس1 را شكل دادند كه زمينه‌ساز خوانش‌هايي نوين در وجوه ملي- بين‌المللي شد. يكي از اين خوانش‌ها، عرصه پيوند ميان هنر و سياست- ميان بازتوليدپذيري اثر هنري و طرح و بسط جريان‌هاي سياسي- بود. با عطف توجه به اين پيوند، پژوهش حاضر كه توصيفي- تبييني است و با استناد به منابع معتبر كتابخانه‌اي، تصويري و الكترونيكي تهيه شده، بر آن است تا نشان دهد كه هنر چگونه مورد بهره‌برداري قرار گرفت تا تحقق‌بخش اهداف سياسي بريتانيا باشد. براساس نتايج به دست آمده، نخبگان سياسي- فرهنگي بريتانيا به سه روش از هنر بهره‌برداري كردند : طراحي معمارانه مبتني بر ايده‌اي نوآورانه از ارزش‌هاي فناوري ساخت‌وساز، توليد آثار با درجه كيفيت و كميت پيشرفته صنعتي و نمايشي خلاقانه از صنايع‌دستي اقوام مستعمره. زيرا اين روش‌ها كه بر پايه مولفه‌هايي در بياني خالص از پيشرفت علمي و صنعتي بودند و نوعي نگاه زيبايي‌شناختي مبتني بر تاثيرات حسي و ادراكي ايجاد مي‌كردند سبب شدند تا : 1. گونه‌اي شناخت معقولانه از تحولات فناورانه در انطباق با سياست‌هاي منفعت‌طلبانه و در جهت حفظ منافع ملي‌شان صورت گيرد؛ 2. ادراك مثبت از قابليت توليد انبوه و صرفه‌جويي در هزينه‌هاي توليد با بهره‌گيري از صنايع ماشيني براي پيشبرد سرمايه‌داري كالامحورشان ايجاد شود و 3. سلسله مراتبي از اطلاع‌رساني در مشروعيت‌بخشي به بهره‌وري‌هاي نوين انحصارطلبانه‌شان صورت پذيرد. چنان‌كه برآيندي تحليلي از اين موارد در بطن پژوهش حاضر، تبيين‌گر تحقق اهداف مدنظر بريتانيا همچون تمركز قدرت، رشد اقتصادي و بهره‌وري‌هاي تجاري- سياسي‌اش است.

For the first time in the modern cultural bio-world, the British political-cultural elites formed a multidimensional phenomenon of international exhibitions called The Crystal Palac Exhibition which led to new national-international readings. One of these readings was the opportunity for linking arts and politics – between the ability of reproduction of art work and the array and design of political forces. Considering this linkage, the present descriptive-explanatory research which is depending on reliable library, visual, and digital resources attempts to show how the arts were utilized in favor of the political goals of Britain. In order to answer this question appropriately, this research is undoubtedly trying to study the experience of the Crystal Palace Expo and provide an image by defining its general view in its content as the independent variable and its form as the dependent variable; in such a way that it will be able to infer the political procedures-artistic approaches of the exhibition and then define the method of using the arts as a powerful tool for affecting national-international British politics. According to the results, the British political-cultural elite have befitted from arts in three ways. Naturally, such befitting indicates the realization of certain achievements as the profile of the present study which has led to the political goals of Britain in the exhibition 1851: In the first step, by being aware of the components of the dominant intellectual movements in the nineteenth century, they arranged the effecting factors which led to the mentioned exhibition in Britain in a proceeding linear timeline. They reproduced the arts in a modern scene of architectural expressions based on an innovative idea from the values of technology; thus, they reached a feeling of satisfaction from technological developments along with raising awareness and spreading it among the people. So, (through lawful public agreement), they could attract the support and involvement of people in major national capitalistic industries and technologies; expand the economy development plans of their country and penetrate among the intellectual class of the nation by stating that Britain is progressing towards distinct paths and this progress can be a tangible reality indicating that the situation will improve. In such a way that nationalistic policies led Britain to expand and maintain its power both among the public and intellectual class.As the second step, they started to categorize the works of art according to their location into three groups titled as “industrial arts”, “fine arts”, and “handcrafts and tribal arts” and exhibited them. In the category of industrial arts, they separated industrial works of art from others, especially fine arts, by putting utmost emphasis on the visual characteristics of these industrial items along with defining an artistic-industrial object for them. They aimed at creating a modern participation for elevating the key affecting factors of the British industry, which had developed during a long period of time to a highly progressed level of quality and quantity, to a competitive international level. They pushed forward the assimilation and mass production procedures of the produced commodities in the realm of arts; created a positive understanding from the capacity of mass production and production cost saving by benefitting from machine-based industries for improving their commodity-based capitalism; created the foundation of a kind of investment and invited people to support and participate in such remarkable forms of capitalism. Based on the policy of capitalism in dynamic capitalistic economy, these achievements enabled them to accomplish the other goal of Britain which was further economic development and commodity-based profit making. For the third step, by having a kind of understanding from the situation of the colonized countries, they exhibited these nations in the symbolic form of artistic works and customs, as well as allocating special places for marching, choir singing with native costumes, and performing plays related to their traditional and native issues; in such a way that in an ethnical categorization of the productions of the countries of the empire, they have created an opportunity for the British industry to improve their situation with allocating funds, skills, and their own specific knowledge to show the maturity of the nature of their industry in the new environment of international competition. As such, these contradicting exhibitions enabled them to build a hierarchy of information about legitimizing their modern monopolistic productivity. Also they could inform their industries about colonial arts as economic resources and persuade them to get involved in business markets of “handcrafts and tribal arts”; thus destabilizing the use of arts in handcrafts and tribal arts in accordance with their imperialistic policies and their financial interests, and share that with their own society in order to internationally empower Britain in a legitimate manner.