Artpolitik: Social Anarchist Aesthetics in an Age of Fragmentation Neala Schleuning
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ARTPOLITIK Social Anarchist Aesthetics in an Age of Fragmentation NEALA SCHLEUNING Minor Compositions 2013 Artpolitik: Social Anarchist Aesthetics in an Age of Fragmentation Neala Schleuning ISBN 978-1-57027-248-6 Cover design by Haduhi Szukis Cover image by bildwechsel Interior design by Margaret Killjoy Released by Minor Compositions 2013 Wivenhoe / New York / Port Watson Minor Compositions is a series of interventions & provo- cations drawing from autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of everyday life. Minor Compositions is an imprint of Autonomedia www.minorcompositions.info | minorcompositions@ gmail.com Distributed by Autonomedia PO Box 568 Williamsburgh Station Brooklyn, NY 11211 www.autonomedia.org [email protected] CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION: THE NATURE OF ART . .1 Introduction – Reasons for Writing This Book – From A Written to a Visual Culture – Classical Aesthetics: The Case for Meaning – Art, Politics, and Aesthetics in the Modern Era 2. MODERNISM: ART AS REBELLION . 25 Introduction – Aesthetic Elements of Modernism – Criticism of Modernism – Aesthetic value and the idea of quality – Technology and the mechanization of art – Art as meaning and purpose – The critique from the left: the alienation of art from community – Modernism, Anarchism, and Aesthetics in the United States – Early twentieth century anarchist aesthetics – Modernism and individual- ism – Modernism as anarchism – The Legacy of Modernism 3. DADA, SURREALISM AND THE DREAM OF REVOLUTION . 73 Introduction – The Political Aesthetic of Surrealism – The politics of the mind – Surrealism and political activism – Surrealist art as a new politics – Surrealism and the aesthetics of consumer capitalism – American Surrealism – Criticism of Dada and Surrealism – The Legacy of Dada and Surrealism 4. SOCIALIST REALISM: REAL LIVES, REAL PEOPLE, REAL POLITICS. 115 Introduction – Repression of Socialist Realism in the United States – Aesthetics of Socialist Realism – Stylistic elements of Socialist Realism – The role of the artist – Criticism of Socialist Realism – The mutual exclusivity of politics and art – Socialist Realism as a threat to artistic freedom – Socialist Realism and capitalist adver- tising aesthetics – The Legacy of Socialist Realism 5. THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL: ART AS DIRECT ACTION . 151 Introduction – Aesthetic Elements of the Situationist International Perspective – The spectacle – Détournement – Dérive – The situ- ation – Criticism of the Situationist International – A collective or individual analysis? – Recuperation by capitalism – Lack of com- mitment to a revolutionary agenda – The SI: art and the artist – The problem of individualism – Consumerism and unbridled consump- tion – Sustainability of action – The Legacy of the Situationist International 6. THE POSTMODERN DIGRESSION: WARMED OVER MODERNIST AESTHETICS . 185 Introduction – Aesthetics in the Postmodern Era – Postmodern Criticism of Capitalist Aesthetics – The loss of meaning and purpose – The individual artist and artistic freedom – The consumer culture: the postmodern dilemma – The culture industry and capitalist aes- thetics: What is to be done? – The Legacy of Postmodernism 7. POSTMODERN ANARCHISM, POLITICS, AND AESTHETICS . 209 Introduction – Postmodern Anarchism: A Framework for Change? – Postmodern Anarchist Aesthetics – The theory – The practice – The Challenges of Postmodern Anarchist Aesthetics 8. SOCIAL ANARCHIST AESTHETICS IN AN AGE OF FRAGMENTATION . 233 Elements of a Social Anarchist Aesthetics – Meaning – The so- cial nature of political art: context and community – The central- ity of narrative – The Social Anarchist Artist and the Avant-garde – Confronting Power: The Role of Social Anarchist Aesthetic – Challenging capitalism – Challenging advertising art – Nourishing the Imaginative: A Bridge to the Possible – Art as Action: A “Dynamic Realism” – Conclusion: Art and Freedom BIBLIOGRAPHY . 287 INDEX . 317 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to: Nancy Luomala who came up with the title (in- cluding a backward K which can’t be reproduced typographi- cally), Fred Whitehead, Wayne Nealis, Jeanette Daines, Penelope Rosemont, Maggie Petersen, Jesse Cohn, and other anonymous reviewers for their careful and thoughtful review. A special thank you to Stevphen Shukaitis at Minor Compositions for his interest in and support for this project. Finally, a big thanks to my sister, Carol Radkiewicz, who caught most of my embarrassing grammatical and mechanical errors. PERMISSIONS THEODOR ADORNO, AESTHETIC Theory, edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann, newly translated and edited by Robert Hullot-Kentor (English edition published by University of Minnesota Press, 1997, Regents of the University of Minnesota). Original, German-language edition copyright 1970 by Suhrkamp Verlag. Bob Black, “The Realization and Supression of Situationism.” Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle (1977) (anti-copyright) Martin Espada, Poetry Like Bread, Curbstone, 1994. Lines of poetry from: Martin Espada, “Federico’s Ghost;” Ernesto Cardinal, “PeasantWoman from Cua;” Otto Castillo, Untitled; Margaret Randall, “Immigration Law;” and Claribel Alegria, “From the Bridge.” Ken Knabb, ed. and trans., Situationist International Anthology (anti-copyright) Jude Nutter, I Wish I had a Heart like Yours, Walt Whitman University of Notre Dame Press Raoul Vaneigem, The Cavalier History of Surrealism, Donald Nicholson-Smith, translator. Some of the ideas in this book have been previously explored in review essays published in the journal Social Anarchism. ABOUT THE COVER COVER IMAGE BY: bildwechsel, a graphic design studio in Berlin, dedicated to cultural, social and political graphic and communi- cation design, print, and other media: image-shift.net. The cover image was initially designed as a poster for the campaign against the 2001 German residential law. “Free movement is our right,” the poster proclaims. This law, like the former apartheid “Pass laws” in South Africa, was passed in 1982. The law forbids refugees to move freely about in Germany. They are not allowed to leave the local districts where they are confined to living in places in iso- lated buildings, often in the woods and isolated city areas un- der permanent surveillance. They must apply for permission to travel from the Foreign Office, which forbid the movement of refugees. They have to pay administration fees for an ap- plication for traveling permission. They have to pay these fees from their meager monthly social allowances of 80 deutsch- mark. The fees are not refunded even in the case of a rejec- tion of permission. This situation pushes them to cross their district borders “illegally,” resulting in greater police control, criminalization and illegality. The last consequence of illegal- ity is the deportation of refugees through isolation and con- finement in deportation prisons. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: THE NATURE OF ART Art is not cozy and it is not mocked. Art tells the only truth that ultimately matters. It is the light by which human