Roi Vaara – Artist’s Dilemma

Roi Vaara’s performance for film Artist’s Dilemma (1997) obviously deals with the alleged sharp distinction between art and life. It is not clear, whether the man is not able or simply unwilling to decide, he just keeps walking back and forth on the frozen sea and basically ends up being both: not quite art and not quite life.
Interestingly, he is out there, on his own, with no land and no people in sight — is it an inner conflict he is facing? To be honest, yes, I like to think of the artist as someone who now and then has to step away from the center (of life) to be able to see things clearer. And depending on what art form he chooses, the process of creating can involve a temporary social withdrawal as well. But then again, when or where does life end and art begin? Isn’t it actually only a blurring of boundaries? 
From another point of view, the artist’s acts need to be judged by others in order to be considered art. If we visit a gallery, a concert hall or a theatre we are assured that whatever happens behind those doors is art, whereas outside is life. It’s all about making use of specific codes. Furthermore, anything the artist says, does, creates or thinks is art, even without his intention, once someone else perceives or thinks of it as art — and I don’t even intend to bring up the critics here. Seen from this perspective, dividing art from life and adhering to yesterday’s definitions of artistic excellence is just plain naive and probably a waste of time. Not only, because we can hardly isolate them (do we really want to?), but also, because contemporary art is dominated by multimediality, intermediality and creating hybrids, which obviously parallels modern life and our need for electronic devices, mostly for communication. Both words, art and life, don’t have clear identities anymore. I’m not sure, if the opposite has ever been the case. Nevertheless, I truly like Vaara’s Artist’s Dilemma, it is thought-provoking and visually very beautiful. Someone please lend him a coat.