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"The Ugly Original" or "Jolies-laides", Pretty uglies in French.  Yes, it is encouraging, it leads us to think that what is beautiful urges us to repeat again and again. Where as 'The Ugly Original' open up an unknown terrotories. We desire to be facinated by what charms and attract us. Indeed, the Medusa was so enamoured of her own beauty that she was punished with having it transformed into accursed, unbearable ugliness. Her curly hair was turned into snakes and her head turned the spectator to stone. Beatiful ugliness: Freud observed that the Gorgon was a symbol of the female genitals, since its sight made men hard. It was Perseus who, by presenting her with his shield which was bright as a mirror he was able to cut off her head and used it to over come other enemies. He kept it covered with cloth which he lifted when in need. Indeed, this is one of the most beautiful allegories of painting in the West.

Every culture establishes norms and precepts which regulate the circulation of values. These are by no means secure. But the entire system of museums, collections and collectors, critics and the
public alike act almost as an intellectual police, voluntarily and involuntarily. Only an apeal to other cultures, or historical precedent can shift the paradigme. In the last century much was achived by applying a unortodox material and devices. New technic made the need for new norms ergent. Could the car be truly compared to the Parthenon? Of course, it could not. But the "new Spirit' which was just a euphomism for Capitalism invented by a very clever Berlin sociologist: Werner Sombart was immediately adopted by every upstart. At this moment in time we are in a comparable situation. There is much that we can make use of. Much of it is ugly. But only by allowing ourselfves the luxery of helping ourselves to what is not evidently already assimilated and sanctified and enshrined as 'beaautiful' we have the chance to recover our original perception of the world, the world as it has never seen before. Hence 'The Ugly Original' is a key strategy which release one from the tyrany of the empirical world, the tyrany of taste and fashion. As George Bernard Shaw said: 'no wonder fashion has to be changed every three month as it is ugly'.

New York 16. II. 09