This philosophical and programmatic essay deals with the significances of art in its exhibition context and its pedagogical implications. Exhibition context is understood as institutional and non-institutional spaces which keep and exhibit artistic productions, such as museums and art galleries. The text discusses the political and pedagogical as well as the ideological character of art and museums by analyzing the injunctions of these institutions in face of their social representations and the art market. Thus, it seeks to show how discourses that sacralise art, the artist, and the exhibition spaces reduce or even restrict access to the experience of or with art; it seeks to discuss the intricacies of a power relation established between the public and the artwork within the exhibition. Moreover, this research has the purpose to unmask the "benevolent promises of art and its institutions" which are currently prevalent in art teaching, making it often a mechanism for the mere reproduction of a dominant culture. In short, it analyses the way the art world regulates not only the production of art, but also how it establishes criteria for the selection of works and public. The argumentation is supported by the writings of Paul Valéry, Theodor Adorno, Pierre Bourdieu, Bruno Deloche, Roger L. Taylor, Nildo Viana and Marilia Xavier Cury.
museums; art; artists; market; education