Working groups
WHAT WAS THE AESTHETICS OF FOLK-POLITICS?
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
Václav Magid is a writer, visual artist, curator and editor. The scope of his interests covers the relationship between aesthetics and politics, the role of conceptual tendencies in contemporary art or the legacy of aesthetic theory of Frankfurt School. He holds a teaching position at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Brno University of Technology.
CULTURE OF PROTEST/PROTEST CULTURE
PhDr. Marta Kolářová, Ph.D.
Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences,
Mgr. et Mgr. Arnošt Novák
Department of Social and Cultural Ecology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University
The seminar will focus on study of culture of protest from a sociological, anthropological and media studies perspectives.
- One part will present theoretical approaches to protest. What is a protest? The different kinds of protests. From pressure politics to prefigurative politics.
- Second part will deal with methodological approach to study protests. The students will learn and practically apply qualitative research methods (participant observation, interviews, media analysis etc.). We will analyze particular forms of theatricality and media representations of protests, e.g. counterculture of the 1960s and the alter-globalization movement around the turn of millennium.
We will discuss following (and other) questions:
- Can theater and theatrical forms be significant tactics for the mobilization and organization of protests?
- Is theatrical performance successful? (Analyze under what conditions and compare with other protest tactics)
- Students can bring their own projects and we can discuss them collectively.
Literature:
- Dorothea KRAUS. „Theatrical Protest“. In Protest Cultures: A Companion. Edited by Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Martin Klimke, and Joachim Scharloth. New York: Berghahn, 2016
- Marianne MAECKELBERGH. „Doing is believing: Prefiguration as strategic practice in the alterglobalization movement. “ Social Movement Studies 10(01): 1-20, 2011