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1: that as capital tends to deterritorialize,
being profit and actual political control the place from where its
identity develops, in the same way, in the world of art, power tends
to branch out allowing for new configurations;
2: that the Christian presently known as Saint Nicholas, who would
later be identified with Santa Claus, was born in Patara, a harbour
in Asia Minor (nowadays in Turkey) in the year of 265, that passed
away in 334, and that his remains were stolen and taken to Bari
(now in Italy) in 1087;
3: that in 1087, the city of Bari was suffering a recession after
the Norman invasion, and that to overcome its crisis it needed to
re-profile its identity in some way;
4: that at the time, the possession of relics of the saints generated
great prestige and that Saint Nicholas was particularly well reputed,
owing to the miracles he was held responsible for, and to other
miracles attributed to him but actually worked by a bishop of the
same region and same name but later date;
5: that the apparent social mobility within the international systems
of art seems whimsical or incoherent because there is neither central
instance, nor political platform to lend them cohesion .................................
artistic strategy, as there are, similarly, no central instances
regulating circulation and investment of financial capital;
6: that, as it was stated by other organizations for more than fifteen
years ago, the mobility of investment capital creates areas of wealth
(and thus, power centra) within the former peripheries, and areas
of poverty (and thus, peripheries) within places traditionally considered
as centra;
7: that Nicholas was Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor (present-day
Turkey);
8: that more than 400 churches in England were consecrated to him;
9: that the situation is not easy, and will not become easier with
time;
10: that to have access to visibility in central instances is a
question that may be related to certain political operations and
economic investments, but that to achieve it is not easy;
11: that in 1087 seventy sailors embarked in three ships in Bari,
arriving at night to Asia Minor; that they broke into the grave
of Nicholas and carried away most of his bones; that they returned,
safe and sound, to Bari, where they were received as heroes; that
this operation allowed Bari to regain the good reputation it had
lost since the weakening of the Byzantine Empire; that Bari quickly
raised a Romanic basilica to house Nicholas' remains; that some
of Nicholas' remains still rest, since the XIth Century, in Turkey
(then Myra); That Turkey presently claims the remains in Bari; that
it is unlikely the Christians in Bari will assume the Turkish claims,
adducing religious motives (Christians versus Muslims); that the
remains of Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) generate touristic interest
in Europe and the USA, and that by the Romanic basilica, there is
now an Orthodox chapel visited by Greek, Russian and Balkan pilgrims;
12: that, each year, 100,000 tourists come to Bari to see the remains
of Saint Nicholas;
13: that Nicholas reckons miracles to his credit such as having
secretly given money so that three sisters could pay dowries and
marry, avoiding being sold into prostitution by their father;
14: that another of Saint Nicholas' miracles was to have returned
to life, safe and sound, the remains of three children who had been
murdered, butchered and made into corned beef;
15: that the supremacy of painting within the discourse of contemporary
art has sometimes been replaced by the supremacy of a certain post-Duchampian
object of dubious mystery;
16: that another of Saint Nicholas' miracles was to have saved the
life of three innocent soldiers, from being decapitated by a judge's
order;
17: that everything that happens is certain;
18: that another of the identitary fusions attributed to Saint Nicholas
is related to certain attributes of the figure of the Germanic god
Odin, and that a group of French nuns, inspired by the story of
the children made into corned beef, secretly started, in the XIIth
Century, to make presents to poor families in the Day of Saint Nicholas
(December 5th );
19: that at the moment of drawing up this communiqué, the price
of a two-litres' bottle containing a liquid seeping from the grave
of Saint Nicholas in Bari equals two hundred dollars;
20: that the presence of art experts of peripheral origins (Mosquera,
Havana; Herkenhoff, Brazil; Nittve, Sweden; Owkry, Nigeria; etc.)
within power centra (New Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New
York, Tate Modern in London and Dokumenta in Germany, etc.), teaches
us that in the power centra there are new art experts;
21: that the tradition of making gifts (bread, fish, meat and spirits)
in the Day of Saint Nicholas to poor students, appeared in England
also during the XIIth Century;
22: that the Protestant Reformation condemned the practice of making
gifts, which were, though, preserved by the Dutch emigrants to the
Americas;
23: that Evolutionism is the theoretical space of contemporary industrial
society;
24: that the theory of avant-gardes is a theoretical project of
the élites of the art systems;
25: that Saint Nicholas is called Sinter Claes in Dutch;
26: that, in 1931, American artist of Brazilian origin Haddon Sundblom
designed the clothing of Santa Claus with the colours of Coca-Cola,
propitiating the consumption of the beverage even in cold climate
places;
27: present expansion of the Guggenheim Museums: Guggenheim New
York Uptown; Guggenheim New York SoHo; Guggenheim Venice; Guggenheim
Japan; Guggenheim Germany; Guggenheim Spain; Guggenheim Brazil;
28: that it has always been said that Saint Nicholas clothing included
animal furs, perhaps because of syncretic phenomena associating
him to shamanic figures;
29: that access to information is no longer useful as regulating
element of access to the centre, but that taste, as element of value
judgement of an art project's quality, fulfils well this function;
30: that the clothing of Saint Nicholas, before becoming red as
the Coca-Cola, had been green, blue, or altogether and exclusively
composed of animal furs;
31: that Puerto Rico and Costa Rica are countries relatively near
and different; that Sweden and Switzerland are countries relatively
near and different; that Uruguay and Paraguay are countries relatively
near and different, that the theory of the alternatives and underground
movements is a theoretical project ensuring the renewal and survival
of the élites of the art systems;
32: that, looked at in a mirror, the cultural body of a nation or
of any social group is reflected as a perceptible unit;
33: that the value assigned to an art project, subordinated to a
system that categorizes it, endows the art project with functional
coherence;
34: that, few minutes after being born, Nicholas started to pray
and told the midwife that Wednesdays, Fridays and other sacred dates,
he would drink milk only once a day;
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