물질의 소멸과 예술의 탄생: 마르셀 뒤샹의 <분수>와 펠릭스 곤잘레스-토레스의 <러버보이> = Loss of Material, Birth of Artwork: Marcel Duchamp`s Fountain and Felix Gonzalez-Torres`s Lover Boy

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The social phenomenon after the recent tragic loss of Sungnyemun and the ensuing polemics surrounding its reconstruction initiated serial questions about the status of a symbolic object in a national community. In this paper, the case of Sungnyemun is critically interpreted in order to expand the inter-related issues of material culture study and art history: first, how to distinguish a simple object and a symbolic artifact; second, how the material objects are imbued with immaterial values, including aesthetic originality and cultural significance; third, how to understand the interaction between society and symbolic objects, through which the individuals are socialized and the collective identity of a community is constructed. The following analyses of Marcel Duchamp`s Fountain and Felix Gonzalez-Torres`s Lover Boy, the two most prominent artistic models that address these issues will shed a new light on the meanings of original artwork and its discursive relationship with community. In the case of Duchamp`s best-known readymade, Fountain, the original work was mechanically produced, while the process of its reproductions was highly controlled and the outcomes were carefully crafted by the artist. The range of histories of the things functioning as replicas of the lost Fountain reveals the intensity of the aspiration of the author to preserve the authenticity of the original and subsequently the authority of the artist by putting the copies in circulation. Gonzalez-Torres, in contrast, suggested the economy of gift by presenting piles of candies and endless copies of paper, which are free for the audience to take home. Thus, his works defy the traditional value system sustaining the superiority of originality, uniqueness, and authenticity. I argue that Gonzalez-Torres`s body of works ultimately creates a new mode of community, which is bound less by the desire for possession, rather than by shared responsibility of meaning.