Message

The Penacho Code is a metaphor for unlocking the secret of value in art.

• Where is the value in art?
• If we can find the value, then can we use it?
• If we succeed in finding the value, will we change the system?
• Cabaret: is the exception where we can present a challenge.

Where is the value?

Where is the value in art? Art is unique in that we reject classical means of valuation. Yet value abounds; the day we flew to Mexico, all of the papers were full of the estimated sale price for Damien Hirst's diamond skull.

No artist would reject those sales, when offered, so we find that the art world lives in a double life. On the one hand we reject value, on the other, we adore it.

Finding the Value

We can find the value many ways.

We can track the prices of works of art, as they are traded. Or, we can ask the participants. Or, we can live it, and learn it from the inside.

Or, we can seek outside the system for help in explaining the system.

Using the Value

We did all those things, and now we are ready. But what then can we do, now that we have found the value?

We can use it.

We can allocate it. We can increase the value of your art. We can increase your value as a participant. We can launch you on a career of fame as a gallery owner, a curator of undeniable import, a collector of inspired wisdom.

The Penacho Code, as presented in Cabaret form, is exactly that: we found the value, and now we will help you to increase your value. Participants are invited to play in a game wherein the value will be revealed, for those there to grasp it.

Can that be true?

If you believe we can find the value, then you can easily believe we can use it.

If you don't believe we can find the value, why not? Can you do better? Is the value not there to be found? Is the value some magical pixie dust that can only be used if it is not understood?

Even if you don't believe we have answered these questions, you can't avoid the trap: by asking the questions, we must bring us all closer to the answers.

Changing the system

The system always rejects change. This system we call art, any system, the system of finance, of employment, of schooling. All systems protect themselves by fighting off change.

So the search for value in art is outside of art itself.

If we succeed in finding the value, we change the system. Better we do that in the small world of Cabaret, where the rules are footloose and fancy free, than in mainstream art where millions of artists depend on it for their livelihoods.

Cabaret is the place

To be successful in art, the artist must enter the system.

Although freedom of expression ("speech") is encouraged, freedom of production is not. Current ideas of "what is art?" form a strong force which guide the artist like a velvet glove over an iron fist. Producing that which is outside today's art results in exclusion -- from representation, art society, funding, critical attention.

Cabaret is the exception to that. In Cabaret, the laws of production of art are suspended. We can present anything within both an artistic framework and an entertainment framework.

The more challenging, the more sarcastic, biting the work, the better. In Cabaret we could even challenge the system of Cabaret and we would be accepted.

Recognition is strong. Funding exists. The questions that are asked can be so serious, so heart wrenching, that they need not create a response. To many, Cabaret is its own excuse, its own facade. "That's just Cabaret" is enough of an excuse for those morally offended to not feel a further response is needed.

Cabaret creates and wears its own emporer's clothing, and it is enough to protect both the sensitivies of the public and to protect the emporer herself.

The Penacho Code

Why is the Penacho valuable? Why is art valuable?

There is a code somewhere, be it a secret handshake or a historical tale or an ancient law or rule. If we can unlock this code, we can divine the value of the Art, of the Penacho.

The Penacho is a bridge from the art world of Austria to the cultural world of Mexico. Curiously, this is like yin and yang: The artistic spirit burns strongly in Mexican culture in the sense of the Penacho, even if art in Mexico is not as well accepted. In contrast, Art in Austria is the culture, and what Mexico values as culture is almost rejected in Austria.

In Austria, the children do not go to birthday parties wearing Penacho hats made of paper. In Mexico, the struggle is for survival in a harsh economic climate, and seeing the spiritual collective self of the Penacho in a dusty old room in a Vienna museum is close to meaningless.

Austrians do not give value to the Penacho. To Austrians, the only value the Penacho has is that which the Mexicans give to it, in their fight to return it. The more the Mexicans value it, in front of the Austrians' eyes, the more they fight to keep it.

And in that fight between the Mexican spiritual self and the Austrian archeological tradition, we can learn much about what is value in art.

The only value in the Penacho is what Mexican spirit gives it. The Austrians reap that value. Is this how art works?