Mgr. Václav Magid

Academic Research Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague

The term “folk politics” has been recently introduced by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams to describe a prevailing leftist tactic at the beginning of the 21st century, with its dominant focus on direct action, horizontalism and local solutions. While the hegemony of folk politics begun with the rise of alter-globalism in the nineties, its decline has been represented by the failures of the Occupy Movement after 2011. The seminar will be based on a hypothesis that most of participatory and politically engaged art of the last two decades can be placed in the framework of “folk politics”, which will consequently allow us to apply aspects of its political criticism to the domains of aesthetics and art. Nevertheless, the large part of the seminar will be devoted to exploration of competing theories which have been used to conceptualize participatory and activist art of this era – from Nicolas Bourriaud’s “relational aesthetics” through Grant Kester’s idea of “dialogical art” up to Claire Bishop’s accentuation of “dissensus” and antagonism, rooted in philosophy of Jacques Rancière. The ultimate failure of the promises of the “folk political” participatory art and the consequent turn to the art of “platforms” will be approached through the analysis of differences between the 7th and the 9th Berlin Biennials.

Literature:

• Nick SRNICEK, Alex WILLIAMS, Inventing the Future, 2015
• Nicolas BOURRIAUD, Relational Aesthetics, 1998
• Grant KESTER, Conversation Pieces, 2004
• Claire BISHOP, Artificial Hells, 2012
• Jacques RANCIÈRE, The Politics of Aesthetics, 2004
• Jacques RANCIÈRE, Dissensus, 2010
• A review of 7th Berlin Biennial, TBA
• A review of 9th Berlin Biennial, TBA