Editor of the forum "Agora", organized by the "Zahumlje" JU from Nikšić, Andjela Pekovic, with guests dr Savo Laušević and theologian and fashion designer Hristino Plamenac, tried to answer numerous questions - who influences the formation of taste, what it means to have taste, why kitsch and junk became more ubiquitous, and taste something that is "extreme".
The aim of the forum, Peković said, was to do the opposite, contrary to the aesthetic premise that tastes should not be discussed, because, according to her, "taste ceases to be a sense for aesthetic and cultural evaluation, which leaves certain consequences for society", and one one of them is the evangelization of culture.
"We somehow live in a world that has become less and less palatable. Taste is not something that is now in orbit, that is given, that is crucial. We may lack everything in appearance, but if there is no taste, no one will rebel", said Laušević.
Emphasizing that not every truth is scientific, nor that everything is in rational knowledge or in action, Laušević pointed out that taste is important because it is the measure of every segment of life, and that is why discussions on this topic are necessary because by changing the value system, which is imposed by society, taste is also included.
"We live in the age of consumer society, where people, as subjects, instead of judging and making judgments about taste, they are consumers. It's one thing when someone calls you a consumer, and another when they call you a personality, because a personality can judge. As soon as you become a consumer, you become someone who has no taste but has an appetite. Taste requires disinterested judgment, no desire to possess, no desire to use, no desire to consume, and even no desire to enjoy. Aesthetic taste is not a taste that enjoys and in some way satisfies its urges, while consumer culture is reduced to enjoyment, consumption, and that's why kitsch is the right thing to enjoy, consume," Laušević believes.
According to the fashion designer Plamenac, everything is a matter of subjective experience, including what is taste, what is good/bad, ugly/beautiful, and it is questionable how we form that subjective experience.
"Taste is formed through the interaction of four elements. These are social environment, education system, heritage and media. I think that today the media play a crucial role in all of this and that we usually form our taste based on what the media offers us. We form images of what is beautiful based on what is presented to us as beautiful in the media. Now we come back to the story of the consumer society. The media are actually looking for consumers from us, they are not looking for someone who thinks", said Hristina Plamenac.
Laušević believes that it is Lace the great culprit for severing the ties between the moral and the true, because he reduced the aesthetic taste to the subjective, so in this way a work of art can be beautiful and have evil incorporated into it. As he said, it is a big mistake to reduce art to pure aestheticism, or to emphasize that the real side of art is crucial.
"Art cannot be reduced to the level of things. The criterion of taste must be on a spiritual basis. If there is a spiritual education in the education of people, then there is a basis for taste," said Laušević.
Plamenac said that there are two types of morality in modern man - what we show and how we don't live, and what we live and don't show. Comparing today's and traditional culture, she pointed out that folk culture developed independently and that all the objects that were used were useful, while today the "privilege of useful objects" has been lost, and what remains is the satisfaction of needs.
The moderator of the evening, Anđela Peković, pointed out that today's system, which is based on capital, and how it knows how to create false needs in society in order to make a good profit from it, is the persecution of the spirit from culture and art, from everyday life.
"Values are rapidly declining, and senses are being exploited. In the book Ludvig Goec, 'The Phenomenology of Kitsch', we read that most theoretical discussions about taste have taken place precisely on the phenomena of kitsch and junk, and those two phenomena are nothing more than the logical consequence of replacing ethical categories with aesthetic ones. Goec says that kitsch and junk have become synonymous with our existence and that both phenomena belong to a mass culture that does not tolerate criticism, and that a totalitarianism without violence is in force. We can repeat those discussions even today. It is obvious that we live in a world of kitsch, light entertainment and junk literature," said Peković.
According to Laušević, in order to understand a literary work, you need mental engagement, and when it comes to kitsch, you don't need that engagement.
“It sticks to us. It is given to us. You just have to enjoy it. Kitsch satisfies a need for fun, enjoyment, and leisure at the lowest level. And it's a consumable. You spend yourself in enjoyment, you spend what is the object of enjoyment. The result of enjoyment is consumption. I spent myself, I ate myself, and we came to nothing. That's the result. And art is not wasted", said Laušević.
According to Hristina Plamenac, disintegration is at all levels, not only in culture, while Laušević points out that out of the four key experiences, religion, art, philosophy and science, three have been marginalised, and science has become a belief by quasi-scientists, because it scientists do not believe in science, they doubt it. In order to protect themselves from, as Peković said, the invasion of bad taste, and to rehabilitate taste in the age of mass culture, resistance is needed, according to Laušević.
"Resistance means not only working on yourself, but also opposing yourself. Every field can be resisted. Cultivating that culture of resistance is the key thing. When we are resilient, then nothing can happen", said Laušević.
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