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capitArt has started as a small collective in Tokyo in 2015. In 2018, we moved to Mumbai and starting in 2021, we are in London.

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We use art as a political language to push perception on social phenomena. We think that an art that is guided by philosophy and that informs technology and science is a force which can help us humans pass through the existential crises we are facing in the contemporary world. So, we point to the political nature of the artistic activity as what offers new perspectives and inspires new thought and another world.

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As capitArt, we work with artists, curators, researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs, designers, travellers, collectors,  philosophers and poets from all around the world who probe the boundaries of art to question what it means to be human today.

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We deal, curate, consult (advise), exhibit art and conduct research to fund our artists and projects. Simply put, we operate very much like an art agent of the art market to support art that exists outside the market.

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Here you will find a few words on art and about Outsider Art namely Art Brut and a short introduction to some of the affiliates. For further inquiries about us and access to some of our solely offline collections please contact us through our contact page or send an e-mail to contact@capitart.com. You can find out about our services through our activities page and follow our events through the curations page.

 


If the meaning of an artwork is constantly opening up and thus, can never be defined absolutely, it is because an artwork doesn’t have meaning in itself. Nothing has a meaning absolutely, only a subjectively derived meaning that is attributed to a select being. The human, as told by Nietzsche, is a natural-born liar, and above all an artist whose mere occupation is to give meaning to a meaningless world. Humans create meaning in a world where nothing has true meaning. The meaning of everything is only a matter of negotiation. 

 In this sense, the desire to determine the value of an artwork is a facet of the desire to rule by predetermining the values around which human life is organised. To put it simply, to claim authority over the value of an artwork is the finest expression of the will to power.  Therefore, the critique of art is always a political act.

We want to see the pleasure brought back to people and inspire a meaningful world. We celebrate creations of all sorts and their erratic singular appreciation beyond the middling frames of those who keep telling people what to think and what to like. The potency of artistic creation today is unimaginable to those who seek nothing but to value their old world and their now volatile beings therein.

 

Now, we are at the threshold of a cultural revolution. One is caused by the development of information sciences and informed by the progress in biotechnology. On one hand, human thought is driven to be more and more computerised under the reign of a profit-oriented logic, on the other hand, these developments are unfolding yet-unimaginable potentials for humankind and the planet.

In both cases, they conceive an odyssey for the human being that comes with vital challenges and heavy responsibilities. We may think, it is only up to philosophy or art to assign meaning to these developments and create a new world narrative.

Flusser asked “[w]hy is it that […] horses don’t yet radiate phosphorescent colours over the nocturnal meadows of the land? Why hasn’t the breeding of animals, still principally an economic concern, moved into the field of aesthetics? Why can’t art inform nature?”. He pointed out that in the immediate future the meaning of philosophy and art, more than anything, is to form a life interwoven with technological developments and thus reinvent human nature. In this sense, it is not only a necessity but also an urgency to acknowledge the political character of art and invest in artistic growth as much as we do in techno-scientific developments.

 

Art Brut that is also known as Outsider Art refers to creations which emerge at the borders of society and so it would escape from any definitions that the society which casts them out could come up with. Yet, there is a vast literature accumulated on Art Brut and Outsider Art which is full of futile attempts to define it, created by those who cannot see the value that is overflowing from their bounded frames.

Beyond the vacuous efforts to frame such elusive creations, we simply appreciate these works with their contradictory presence in the market and their peculiar creators who deeply inspire us to think that a different thought and a different world is possible for they seem to sense vibrantly the alluring appeal of the creation whereas most of us grow death in the hands of our clamour.

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