how far we are in public discourses from a shared perceiving, thinking, and discussing is revealed not the least in a reaction which is not uncommon in discourses on art, either. here, art is perceived in the first place as an event and as an expression of a brand, the artist appears as its chief representative and advertising medium. the reaction to art deteriorates into admiration or abhorrence, into praise or depreciation of the product. the opening perception, at the core of art experience, has been driven out of this context so thoroughly that it is not even remembered. instead, the discourse excites itself in hero worship and disdain, since time immemorial essential components of war.