Suchergebnisse

« It's a Bird ! » Brancusi vs USA : When Law Defines Art.
In 1928, the sculptor Brancusi filed a suit against the American customs, to obtain the recognition of one of his sculptures as a work of art. This trial dramatically emphasizes the link between a juridical argumentation, leaning on the formal rules of law, and an aesthetic argumentation, leaning on the informal conventions delimiting the common sense of art. It condenses in the judicial arena the repertoire of arguments which contributed first to the reaction against modem art, then to its institutional integration. What is at stake here is the reconstruction of a consensus, framed by law, on the proper delimitation of the cognitive boundaries of art, that is, on the definition of what can be considered artistic. Thus the winner was not only Brancusi, but also a « labelling theory » already experienced by Marcel Duchamp throughout artistic institutions : a theory which was to become, fifty years later, the standing point of a major turn in social sciences as well as in contemporary art.

Abstract
Fig-eaters are small passerines of various genus (Sylviidés, Acrocéphalidés et Phylloscopidés); They change their diet in the time of fruits, passing from insectivorous to fructivorous. As a result they get stouter, acquiring a delicious grease which meant they became a target for hunting from Antiquity to the present day resulting in their near extinction. We know a very elaborate, long and precise recipe from Babylon. After the Greeks and Romans, Byzantines and Arabs appreciated and consumed these birds, that were prepared according to various recipes. Nevertheless, in the Arab cultures, two kinds of texts show the interest for those small birds: first, medical and paramedical texts of the hippocratic tradition, and second, texts of cookery books that provide recipes while sometimes quoting physicians. Arab authors attributed aphrodisiacal and medical properties to these small birds, but they also were suspicious of them.

Résumé
Les becfigues sont des petits passereaux de divers genres des Sylviidés, Acrocéphalidés et Phylloscopidés. Ils changent de régime à l'époque des fruits passant d'insectivores à frugivores. Par ce fait ils grossissent et acquièrent une graisse d'un goût délicieux qui les ont fait abondamment rechercher, depuis l'Antiquité, au risque de les faire disparaître. Nous avons déjà une recette très élaborée, longue et précise à Babylone. Après les Grecs et les Romains, les Byzantins et Arabes les ont appréciés et consommés selon des recettes variées. Dans les cultures arabes, cependant, deux sortes de textes montrent l'intérêt porté à ces petits oiseaux. D'une part les textes médicaux et paramédicaux relevant de la tradition hippocratique, d'autre part, les textes des livres de cuisine donnant des recettes, tout en citant parfois les médecins. On attribuait à ces oiseaux des propriétés à la fois aphrodisiaques et médicales, mais on s'en méfiait.