Meters of Aura in Depositories and Tons in Scrap Yards
21. 1. 2026 | VAŠULKA KITCHEN BRNO
Meters of Aura in Depositories and Tons in Scrap Yards
According to a famous statement by Walter Benjamin, the development of more accessible technologies of easy reproducibility weakened—or even destroyed—the aura of the artwork. With the death of the “aura,” we are said to have paid for the advantage of wider public access to cultural values. “Even the most perfect reproduction lacks the Here and Now of the work of art—its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. […] The Here and Now of the original constitutes the concept of its authenticity.”
Yet some still believe that a certain measure of aura may have been preserved by artworks even in the digital age. Is this possible if values such as “authenticity,” “hallmark,” and “original” have somehow vanished? Could the aura be hidden, for instance, in digital code? Or even in the configuration of artificial-intelligence algorithms? And what meaning and significance does the growing mass of artworks hold for the communities of the 21st century—at a time when we are grappling with the consequences of our overproduction of everything?
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