藝術展覽中的身份消費與意識形態操控

Abstract

This paper centers on the ideological dimension of “viewing” as an everyday cultural practice, arguing that the act of attending art exhibitions has shifted from a free aesthetic choice to a cultural ritual collectively orchestrated by art institutions, educational systems, media platforms, and spatial design. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capitaland Louis Althusser’s notion of the Ideological State Apparatus, this study traces the historical transformation of artworks from elite symbols to objects of symbolic consumption, analyzing how, in the Chinese context, they have gradually evolved into tools for constructing identity and taste at the mass level. Further, by examining the ideology of viewing practices, the paper uncovers the underlying logic of class reproduction.The findings reveal that individuals, by participating in art exhibition viewing, signal and perform their cultural capital through “check-in” rituals and curated aesthetic atmospheres, while the visual logic of social media facilitates the acquisition and redistribution of symbolic capital. Simultaneously, algorithmic systems reinforce a “viewing of being viewed,” transforming art exhibition attendance into a performance of “being present” rather than an act of deep engagement with the artworks.Within this process, the popularization of art viewing emerges only as a surface phenomenon; its underlying structure continues to reproduce the hierarchical system of cultural power. Confronting this reality, the purpose of this paper is not to negate the phenomenon of art exhibition viewing but to dismantle the institutional mask of “viewing freedom,” critique its power dynamics, and call for a redirection of the audience’s gaze back to the artworks themselves—encouraging viewers to disengage from consumption-driven visual performances and to reestablish the intellectuality, criticality, and dialogic depth of art appreciation.