Bureaucracy would appear to be the very antithesis of Art.
Bureaucracy is rigid, rule-bound, schematic, hierarchical, commanding, conservative, predictable, dull, grey, and despised.
Art is creative, free, vibrant, ephemeral , frivolous, elegant, subversive, cultured, colorful, and loved.
Bureaucracy is the very antithesis of Art.
At the very least, in Western culture, art is constructed as the antithesis of bureaucracy.
That might explain why there is very little art about bureaucracy. High politics has always been in the focus of artistic efforts. More recently, daily life, economic relations, and societal inequalities have become common tropes of artistic expression. But not bureaucracy and bureaucrats.
It is the mission of this website to collect and curate various kinds of works of art and popular culture about bureaucracy, public administration, and civil servants. The scope of the collection is wide in terms of types of works, genres, and artistic mediums – paintings, novels, operas, photography, films, TV series, and so on. But the scope is narrow in terms of thematic focus – apart from interpretations of bureaucracy and bureaucrats, it covers issues of executive government, but not politics per se, public management but not private business relations, corruption but not crime and general social delinquency.
The reason to start this website is the belief that such a collection can be assembled only with collective efforts. Works of art about bureaucracy being few and far between, it would take the wisdom and knowledge of a wide and diverse set of individuals to build a comprehensive archive.
Feel invited to contribute by suggesting relevant works to include or sharing your interpretations about them. We would be happy to publish guest posts and link to relevant content.
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