(German Version)


Every cultural product, in its execution and orientation, is dependent upon the time that influences it and that it influences. The best cultural products will be the ones where it is apparent that they IGNORE the explosions / wisdom / achievements / claims / possibilities / moods / conflicts / lies of the bygone second, hour, week and eon, awaiting instead the IGNORANCE of the minutes, months and centuries to come. The best and most outrageous cultural statements will be those which hour by hour tear the scraps of their memory out of the maze of data cataracts, doggedly suppressing the intellect of the age, bleeding from hands and hearts.

Have the last ten years of the elapsed and the first three years of the new millennium ever fulfilled our hopes for an art that admits and makes a point of the objectivity of its own ignorance and also its wish to be ignored?

No! No! No!

Have the newscasters, pollsters, watchdogs of discourse, operative men of letters, German rappers, sages of economy, alternative separatists, talk show guests, management consultants, classy columnists, hip DJs, share holder agents, pop writers, advertising strategists, java-script coders or junior professors fulfilled our expectations for an art that burns the essence of life into our flesh?

No! No! No!

Under the pretence of in-ignorance and in-ignorability, ignorants and ignorables all over the world have unified themselves as a generation that today is already waiting for literary and art-historical veneration and that puts itself forward as a candidate for honorable bourgeois recognition – evidence of a youths’ incapacity to be young and a generation of grownups’ inability to grow up.

The signers of this manifesto have gathered under the battle cry of

Ignorantism

for the propaganda of an art from which they expect the realization of new ideals. What exactly is Ignorantism?

The word IGNORANTISM signifies an ignorative relationship to the surrounding informational reality; with ignorantism a new reality attains its majority. Life appears as a simultaneous confusion of noises, colours, and mental rhythms that is absorbed cold-eyed into an ignorantist art with all the sensational screams and feverishness of its deviant everyday psyche and in its total, brutal reality. Here is the clearly marked parting of the ways that separates ignorantism from all previous artistic movements and above all from IRONISM, which some addlebrains have recently taken to be a new phase of risk-free subversion. Ignorantism no longer ignores the self-annihilation of art due to overabundance, diligently ignoring the catchwords of an obsolete in-ignorantism, which is only a cloak for deficiencies of information and cultural interest.

Ignorantism is a CLUB which not only has not been newly published online but also without orthography that one can join without taking on any responsibilities. Here everyone is chairman, and everyone can abstain from expressing any opinion on artistic matters. Ignorantism is not a pretence for the ambition of a few pre-ignorantist artists (as our enemies would like to have you believe). Ignorantism is a type of intellect that can reveal itself in every conversation so that one has to say: this person is an ignorantist; this person is not. The Ignorantism Club has members in every part of the world, as many in Somalia as on Ganymede or in the White House:

Ignorants all over the world – ignore each other!

To be an ignorantist means not to get surfed by data, to be against all accretion of sediment. A moment spent in the maelstrom of in-ignorantism means that one has brought life in danger. The mighty hocus-pocus of the in-ignorabilists blows over the nerves of the true ignorantist - so he lies, so he hunts, so he cycles - half earplug, half bite guard. Down with the bloodless abstraction of in-ignorantism! Down with ignorable theories of the in-ignorantist ignorants! We are for ignorantism in word and image, for the ignorantist happening in the world. To be against this manifesto is to be an ignorantist!

Wien, Mainz-Neustadt, Unterzögersdorf, Nuuk (Godthab), September 2002

ignorantism(at)monochrom(dot)at

(www.monochrom.at/english)


The Signers (partially):

Günter Grass, Günther Jacob, Günter Jauch, Bernhard Günter, Peter Sloterdijk, Dario Fo, Kofi Annan, Henryk M. Broder, William Gibson, Gari Kasparov, Thomas Gottschalk, Robert Hood, Neal Stephenson, Hera Lind, Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, Ron Sommer, Slavoj Zizek, Helga Feddersen, Eduard Zimmermann, Horst Mahler, Otto Schily, Ronald Schill, Blixa Bargeld, Helmut Markwort, Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Wiglaf Droste, Dieter Bohlen, Long Dong Silver, Marvin Minsky, Herbert Haupt, Miriam Makeba, Mike Tyson, Nolan Bushnell, Pipilotti Rist, Hans Krankl, Deedee Ramone, Manuel Göttsching, Jürgen Habermas, Wolfgang Schüssel, Ute Lemper, Fritz Muliar, Wolf Wondratschek, Vonda Shepard, Tobias Moretti, Susan Stahnke, Linus Thorwald, Barbara Rett, Pauline Oliveros, Mark Pauline, Sade, Christoph 'Gusto' Wagner, Eva Demski, John Williams, Joe Strummer, Marcel Reif, Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Franz Vranitzky, Marcel Marceau, Marcel Beyer, Annemarie Schimmel, Die Wiener Sängerknaben, Elfriede Jelinek, Hubert Burda, Shakira, Marlene Streeruwitz, Peter Kruder, Francoise Cactus, Rattelschneck, Robbie Williams, Woody Allen, Daniel Goldhagen, John Cleese, Vangelis, Vagelis Tsakiridis, Bill Gates, Isabelle Allende, Lou Reed, Jackie Chan, Katja Epsein, Kate Jackson, Kate Pierson, Penelope Cruz, Catherine Zeta Jones, Harrison Ford, Emma Thompson, Hanne Haller, Anton Innauer, Tony Curtis, Patricia Highsmith, Reinhard Jesionek, Reinhard Mohr, Reinhard May, Jodie Foster, Pele, Rudolph W. Guliani, Larry Hagman, Sophie Marceau, Dieter Henrich, Wolf Biermann, Renée Zellweger, Peter Jackson, David Cronenberg, Peter Gabriel, Jude Law, Jennifer Aniston, Ian Holm, Isaac Hayes, Timm Ulrichs, Klaus Teuber, Heribert Fassbender, Ludwig Hirsch, Sergej Eisenstein, George Lazenby, Tommi Ohrner, Nicolaus Harnoncourt, Reese Witherspoon, Jack Bruce, Tom Hanks, Thomas Bangalter, The Strokes, Paulus Hochgatterer, Paulus Manker, George W. Bush, Kate Buh, Jimmy Carter, Hannes Wader, Claude "Rael" Vorilhon, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, Pat Matheney, Roger Moore, Michael Moore, Michael Moorcock, Hannelore Veit, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Herbert Prohaska, Bill Drummonds, Bill Viola, Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre, Noam Chomsky, Hannes Androsch, Roger Whitaker, Frank Elstner, Alexander van der Bellen, Mariola Brillowska, Larry Clark, Charlton Heston, Bert Papenfuß, Britney Spears, Paul Kuhn, Jürgen Zeltinger, Celine Dion, Rocko Schamoni, Hans Albers, Tim Roth, Mark E. Smith, Clint Eastwood, Liesl Ponger, Kenneth Anger, Douglas Adams, Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, Rhett Butler, Umberto Eco, Muhammed Ali, Bully Herbig, Matt Groening, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Jon Christensen, Ringo Starr, Pierre Favre, Sven-Ake Johannson, Ian Paice, Roger Taylor, Curt Cress, Udo Lindenberg, Robert Jelinek, Pete Criss, Charlie Watts, Phil Collins, Kenny Clark, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Topper Headon, Frank Köllges, Max Roach, Vincent Price, Milla Jovovich, Milva, Marilyn Manson, MC Hammer, Kaiser Akihito, Peter Alexander, Adam Sandler, Harald Serafin, Harald Seemann, Joesi Prokopetz, Leander Haußmann, Michael Ende, Joel Schumacher, Sadie Plant, Konrad Becker, Boris Becker, Sergius Golowin, Pedro Almodovar, Sigrid Löffler, Olaf Henkel, Katherine Thalmann, Kevin Spacey, Karlheinz Deschner, Christoph Schlingensief, Jürgen Drews, Jörg Drews, Jacques Derrida, Thor Heyerdahl, Roger Corman, Doris Day, Richard Feynman, Stefanie Hertel, Lars von Trier, Lars Ricken, Julian Nida-Rümelin, Heinrich Streithofen,  Dolly Buster, Elizabeth Hurley, Bud Spencer, Wim Wenders, Bruno Ganz, Josef Meinrad, Domian, Osama Bin Laden, Merzbow, Georg Paul Thomann, Anne Sophie-Mutter, Art Garfunkel, Paddy Kelly, Jean-Luc De Meyer, Gerhard Berger, Armin Assinger, Michael Gross, Paul Anka, Hermes Phettberg, Jim Jarmisch, Wynton Marsalis, Christine Nöstlinger, Sabine Christiansen, Enid Blyton, Ken Kesey, Ken Follet, Oliver Sacks, Marion Zimmer-Bradley, Roald Dahl, Michael Köhlmeyer, John Karouac, John Le Carré, Edith Piaf, Alanis Morissette, Kurt Vonnegut, Liam Gallagher, Erich von Däniken, Mia Farrow, Lars Brinkmann, Stefan Weber, Annie Leibowitz, Hermann Scheer, Wolfgang Müller, Jasmin Tabatabai, Elijah Wood, Uzzi Förster, Trent Reznor, Georg Kreisler, Lee Hollis, Deborah Tannen, Angus Young, Alice Schwarzer, Bruce Dickinson, Peaches, Terry Eagleton, Bernie Ecclestone, Albert Uderzo, Yussuf Islam, Jazz-Gitti, Trey Parker, Richard Scarry, Josef Ratzinger, Philip K. Dick, David Sedaris, Heinrich Harrer, Walter Höllerer, Antal Festetics, DJ Bobo, Rosa von Praunheim, Wulf Segebrecht, Leo Kirch, Martin Arnold, Silvio Berlusconi, Brigitte Bardot, John Woo, Christoph Daum, Steven Soderbergh, Stanislav Lem, Konrad Paul Liessmann, Stephen Spielberg, Helge Schneider, Robert K. Heinlein, Hermann Hesse, Neil Armstrong, Louis Armstrong, Jamiroquai, Lee Perry, Stephen Hawking, Irenäus Eybl-Eibesfeldt, Walter Jens, Madeleine Albright, Robert Hartlauer, Claude Levi-Strauss, Felix Guattari, Michel Houellebeq, Cissy Kraner, Ed Wood, Clive Barker, John Waters, H. R. Giger, John Waterman, Genesis P-Orridge, Rudi Keller, Thomas Luckmann, Peter Fuchs, Klaus Theweleit, Robert Gernhard, Yves Saint-Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Paul Spiegel, Pamela Anderson, Bill Ramsey, Jeff Mills, Michael Friedmann, Jürgen W. Möllemann, Birgit Hogefeld, Helmut Höge, Dieter Kunzelmann, Uschi Obermayer, Uschi Glas, Philip Glass, Gunter Sachs, Hans Sachs, Christine Kaufmann, Ricarda Ritter, Frank Castorf, Gerfried Stocker, Peter Weibel, Stefan Raab, Samuel L. Jackson, Rupert Murdoch, Roberto Ohrt, Roberto Blanco, Mauricio Bianchi, Solomon Burke, Peter Weller, Ben Becker, Herman van Veen, Philip Morris, Jan Philipp, Reemtsma, Elke Sommer, Klaus Schulze, Klaus Meine, Kylie Minogue, H. A. Pestalozzi, Gudrun Landgrebe, Nelson Goodman, Peter Moosleitner, Peter Mooshammer, Günther Wallraff, Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasrin, Tom Eller, Rafik Schami, Alan Parson, Hans Dichand, Calista Flockheart, Tim Curry, Kardinal König, Bruce Sterling, Ingvar Kamprad, Zoran Feric, Alfred Biolek, Nina Hagen, Cosma Shiva Hagen, Eva-Maria Hagen, Gunther von Hagen, Yaphet Kotto, Yassir Arafat, Janosch, Hosny Mubarak, Harald Juhnke, Elisabeth T. Spira, Mwai Kibaki, Lula da Silva, Ice Cube, Ice-T, Yoyo, Sabrina Setlur, Dirk von Lotzow, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jan Delay, Quentin Tarantino, Edwin Collins, Michael Collins, Nicolas Collins, Juri Gagarin, Vladimir Putin, Tycho Brahe, Sun Ra, Cher, Bono Vox, Nana Mouskouri, Libuse Safrankova, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chrono Popp, Franz Morak, Gottfried Helnwein, Arik Brauer, Ernst Fuchs, Ivo Robic, Milan Kundera, Vladimir Kaminer, Viktor Jerofejev, Bodo Kirchhoff, Gabriele Wohmann, Christa Wolf, Ulrich Strunz, Ralf Dörper, Ted Gaier, Peter Hein, Bommi Baumann, Arthur C. Clarke, Donna Haraway, Donna Klemm, Terence McKenna, Matthias Reim, Karl Moik, Thomas Meinecke, Wencke Myrrhe, Frank Zander, Ina Deter, Dietmar Dath, Jörg Sundermeier, Madchen Amick, Pierre Henry, Helmut Lachenmann, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Charles Morris, Morrissey, Achim Szepanski, Marguerite Duras, Franka Potente, R. U. Sirius, Alexa Hennig von Lange, Gudrun Gut, Bernadette La Hengst, Dirk Stermann, Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, Keith Haring, Feridun Zaimoglu, George A. Akerlof, Tim Berners-Lee, Tim Berne, Gilberto Gil, Thomas Steinfeld, Hansi Hinterseer, Kay Dieckmann, Gustav Seibt, James Chance, Nam June Paik, Harry Rowohlt, Steve Jobs, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jello Biafra, Kevin Mitnick, Jochen Distelmeyer, Lars Ulrich, Paul Bocuse, Udo Walz, Anton Zeilinger, Jörg Kachelmann, Michael Schanze, Lena Odenthal, Alex Krause, Christian Ströbele, Kate Segal, Ann Druyan, Garth Brooks, Mel Brooks, Kinky Friedman, Daniel Johnston, Dennis Rodman, Johann Lafer, John Wayne Bobbitt, Lorena Bobbitt, Alan Vega, Ted Nelson, Kent Nagano, Rolf Breuer, Dan Castellaneta, Ozzy Osbourne, Weird Al Yankovich, Xavier Naidoo, Lydia Lunch, Annie Sprinkle, Jerry Seinfeld, Richard Kern, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jean-Michel Jarre, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Julian Schabel, Julian Lennon, Yoko Ono, Patrick Pulsinger, Billy Wilder, J. K. Rowling, Lev Manovich, Wigald Boning, Hans Albert, Karl-Otto Apel, Bernhard Rentsch, Vivienne Westwood, Vanessa Beecroft, Vanessa Paradis, Oliver Kahn, Josef Hader, Andi Goldberger, Tiger Woods, Syd Mead, Aki Kaurismäki, Hella von Sinnen, Anke Engelke, Alexander Kluge, Esther Schweins, Elke Winkens, Winona Ryder, Rupert Riedl, Gertraud Höhler, Stuart Home, Peyo, Fransisco Ibanez, Kim Gordon, Lisa Fitz, Geert Lovink, Dolores Schmidinger, Alec Empire, Diamanda Galas, Hans Nieswandt, Sogo Ishii, Sandra Grether, Kerstin Grether, Nils Bokelberg, Thomas D., Shigeyuki Hayashi, Helmut Newton, Helmut Berger, Helmut Kohl, Helmut Heißenbüttel, Helmut Thoma, Helmut Dietl, Roland Düringer, Fela Kuti, Werner Herzog, Ornella Muti, Angela Merkel, Gertraud Knoll, L. Ron Hubbard, Guildo Horn, Stelarc, Richard von Weizsäcker, Bärbel Schäfer, Arnulf Rainer, Oswald Wiener, Norbert Wiener, Valie Export, Dieter Hildebrandt, Dieter Hallervorden, Hanns Dieter Hüsch, Jenny Jürgens, Lore Lorentz, Lore Krainer, Louise Martini, Karl Merkatz, Helmut Zenker, Peter Patzak, Peter Maffay, Peter Kraus, Peter Handke, Peter Westenthaler, Petra Schürmann, Peter Glotz, Peter Paul Zahl, Paul Watzlawick, Paul Ricoeur, Caroline Reiber, Nelson Mandela, Hans-Joachim Bublath, Thomas S. Kuhn, Wojciech Jaruzelski, Lech Walesa, Katarina Witt, Franziska von Almsick, Alexander von Schönburg, Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, Tita von Hardenberg, Ernst von Glasersfeld, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Arnulf Baring, Romina Power, Marusha, Hillary Clinton, John Zorn, Otto Graf Lamsdorf, Gerd Scobel, Mika Vainio, Frank Drake, Harald Lesch, Phil Lesh, Otto von Habsburg, Raissa Gorbatschowa, R. Stevie Moore, Mona Mur, Larry Flint, Diedrich Diederichsen, Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Milos Forman, Rainald Götz, Donald Trump, Gary Larson, Neil Postman, Hadayatullah Hübsch, Amina Claudine Myers, Christoph Heemann, Philippe Noiret, Gerard Mortier, Wolfgang Waldner, Walter Wallmann, Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhof, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, Aung Suu Kyi, Joschka Fischer, Hans Moravec, Tim Fischer, Gotthilf Fischer, Wolfgang Jeschke, Wolfgang Joop, Wolfgang Niedecken, Wolfgang Petry, Wolfgang Ambros, Wolfgang Flatz, Larry King, Anselm Kiefer, Kiefer Sutherland, Jürgen Schremp, Harald Schmidt, Ed Fagan, Ralph Nader, Fraser McTaggart, Michael Mittermayer, Ulrich Seidl, Wolfgang Androsch, Friedrich Achleitner, Konrad Lorenz, Helmut Birkhan, Constanze Fliedl, Susan Sontag, Mark Dery, Thomas Kling, Steve Kurtz, Johannes B. Kerner, Ralf Schumacher, Allan Greenspan, Frank Möller, Electric Indigo, Klaus Eberhartinger, Herbert Grönemeyer, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Angela Davis, Richard Dworkins, Claudia Schiffer, David Bowie, Iman, Herbert Fux, Arabella Kiesbauer, Elle McPherson, Sarah Ferguson, Andreas Leo Findeisen, Gerard Depardieu, Steffi Graf, Ulla Weigersdorfer, Curtis Mayfield, Henry Kissinger, Alan Arkin, Mark Hamill, Peter Hammill, Walter Moers, Rudger Hauer, Jan Cremer, Tuberkel Knuppertz, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Norbert Bolz, Reinhold Grether, Doris Dörrie, Friedrich Kittler, Rüdiger Safranski, Iggy Pop, Slobodan Milosevic, Billy Idol, Negri Hardt, Samuel Huntington, Ulrich Oevermann, Ken Ishii, Claudia Roth, Montserrat Caballe, Condoleeza Rice, Imre Lakatos, Michael Dukakis, Olympia Dukakis, John Dewey, Halle Berry, Lukas Resetarits, Elfriede Ott, Luis Trenker, Lemmy Kilminster, Dolly Parton, Cindy Lauper, Candy Dulfer, Perry Rhodan, Jess Franco, Pater Leppich, Andrea Schurian, Leni Riefenstahl, Frank Schirrmacher, Hans-Henning Scharsach, Günther Oggers, Attila Dogudan, Jimmy Lugano, Rudi Dolezal, Hannes Rossacher, David Copperfield, Götz George, Tom Tykwer, Heide Tenner, Heide Schmidt, Jörg Haider, Rudi Carrell, Niki Lauda, Niki List, Mercedes Bunz, Barbara Karlich, Jürgen von der Lippe, Courtney Love, Dalai Lama, Timothy McVeigh.