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Designed by Kaisa Lassinaro, Sara De Bondt
Printed by Graphicom SPA , Italy
99
CO N T E N T S
Preface
Charles Esche
[7]
Introduction
Will Bradley
[9]
Colour plates
[25]
104
Bauhaus no.3, The Students Voice
Kostufra
106
The Fall of Hannes Meyer
Kostufra
108
Letter, August 1936
Felicia Browne
110
We Ask Your Attention
British Surrealist Group
115
Vision in Motion
László Moholy-Nagy
PART I – 1871
36
40
Letters, October 1870–April 1871
Gustave Courbet
29 October 1870
18 March 1871
7 April 1871
30 April 1871
Socialism from the Root Up
William Morris and E. Belfort Bax
Deutschland Deutschland Über Alles
Kurt Tucholsky and John Heartfield
PART III – 1968
121
Theses on the Paris Commune
Situationist International
(Guy Debord, Attila Kotányi,
Raoul Vaneigem)
125
Response to a Questionnaire
from the Center for
Socio-Experimental Art
Situationist International
(J.V. Martin, Jan Strijbosch,
Raoul Vaneigem, René Viénet)
47
The Socialist Ideal: Art
William Morris
57
The War in Paterson
John Reed
61
En Avant DADA :
A History of Dadaism
Richard Huelsenbeck
130
Statement
Black Mask
Programme Declaration
Komfut
132
Art and Revolution
Black Mask
A General Theory of Constructivism
Varvara Stepanova
134
We Propose a Cultural Exchange
Black Mask
Art and Propaganda
William Pickens
137
Psychedelic Manifesto
Sture Johannesson
The End of Art
Theo Van Doesburg
141
Hopes for Great Happenings
Albert Hunt
Art and Reality
Mieczysław Szczuka
143
Guerrilla Theatre
Ronald G. Davis
Draft Manifesto
The John Reed Club of New York
146
Trip Without a Ticket
The San Francisco Diggers
152
The Post-Competitive,
Comparative Game of a Free City
The San Francisco Diggers
Revolution Now and Forever!
The Surrealist Group
157
‘Experience 68’
The Avant-Garde Artists Group
Cannibalist Manifesto
Oswald De Andrade
161
Tucumán Arde
The Avant-Garde Artists Group
PART II – 1917
68
69
74
76
78
86
91
92
94
Open the Prisons!
Disband the Army!
The Surrealist Group
164
Posters from the Revolution,
Paris, May 1968
Atelier Populaire
166
Position Paper no.1:
On Revolutionary Art
Emory Douglas
171
Art for the Peoples Sake
Emory Douglas
174
Letter, April 1968
Hans Haacke
175
Manifesto for the Guerrilla Art
Action Group
Guerrilla Art Action Group
178
A Call for the Immediate Resignation
of All the Rockefellers from
the Board of Trustees of
the Museum of Modern Art
Guerrilla Art Action Group
216
For Self-Management Art
Zoran Popovi´c
219
The Sword is Mightier
than the Swede?
Sture Johannesson
227
Position Paper: Crossroads
Community (The Farm)
Bonnie Sherk
230
Art Hysterical Notions
of Progress and Culture
Valerie Jaudon and Joyce Kozloff
241
Ideology, Confrontation
and Political Self-Awareness
Adrian Piper
245
The Docklands Photo-Murals
Peter Dunn and Lorraine Leeson
249
Dispatches from an Unofficial
War Artist
Peter Kennard
180
Letter to Richard M. Nixon
Guerrilla Art Action Group
251
181
Insertions into Ideological Circuits,
1970–75
Cildo Meireles
Ten Items of the Covenant
Laibach
255
Radical Software, vol.1 no.1,
The Alternate Television Movement
Phyllis Gershuny and Beryl Korot
Flyer for the Rev-Revue
of Soc-Fashion
Orange Alternative
257
Operating Manual for Leszek MAJ
Orange Alternative
188
190
The Videosphere
Gene Youngblood
PART IV – 1989
191
Cybernetic Guerrilla Warfare
Paul Ryan
260
Geometric Retroabstraction
Desiderio Navarro
196
Proclamation of the Orange
Free State
The Kabouters
271
200
Call to the Artists of Latin America
The Border Art Workshop/
Taller De Arte Fronterizo
Guillermo Gomez-Pena
and Emily Hicks
Interviewed by Coco Fusco
202
Womens Art: A Manifesto
277
A Presentation
Gran Fury
(Tom Kalin, Michael Nesline
And John Lindell)
283
Rebellion on Level p
Christoph Schäfer and Cathy Skene
with the Hafenrandverein
290
Popotla
RevArte
293
Statement by the Feminist Artist
Collective Ip Gim
VALIE EXPORT
204
Notes on Street Art by the Brigadas
Ramona Parra
‘Mone’ Gonzàlez
206
Resolutions of the Third World
Filmmakers Meeting In Algiers
211
Press Release, September 1976
Solvognen
213
Invisible Theatre
Augusto Boal
Art and Social Change
297
How To?
Tiqqun
313
Politicising Sadness
Colectivo Situaciones
319
Mayan Technologies and the Theory
of Electronic Civil Disobedience
Ricardo Dominguez
Interviewed by Benjamin Shepard
and Stephen Duncombe
332
The Articulation of Protest
Hito Steyerl
340
A Concise Lexicon of/for
the Digital Commons
Raqs Media Collective
350
The Revenge of the Concept: Artistic
Exchanges, Networked Resistance
Brian Holmes
369
Drifting Producers
Yongseok Jeon
378
There is no alternative:
THE FUTURE IS SELF-ORGANISED
Stephan Dillemuth, Anthony Davies
And Jakob Jakobsen
PART V – Commissioned Essays
384
The Many AND s of Art
and Revolution
Gerald Raunig
395
Rebuilding the Art of the People
John Milner
408
Time Capsule
Lucy R. Lippard
422
Secular Artist, Citizen Artist
Geeta Kapur
440
447
About the authors
[462]
Selling the Air: Notes on Art and the
Desire for Social Change in Tehran
Tirdad Zolghadr
About the editors
[463]
Notes
[464]
Line Describing A Curb
Asymptotes about VALIE EXPORT,
the New Urbanism and
Contemporary Art
Marina Vishmidt
Bibliography
[474]
Index
[478]
Acknowledgements [479]
Contents
PREFACE
C H AR LE S E SC H E
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]ggiYVm7YbhfU`GU]bhAUfh]bg]b%--,hch\YfYgYUfW\UbXdfcXiWh]cbcZ]hg
UWWcadUbm]b[gYf]YgcZVcc_g \UgU``ckYXighcVY[]bibdUW_]b[dUfh]Wi`Uf
XYjY`cdaYbhg]bWcbhYadcfUfmUfh]bWc``UVcfUh]cbk]h\UbiaVYfcZbYk
dUfhbYfg"H\Y^cifbU`\UgVYYbWc!diV`]g\YXVm7U`]Zcfb]U=bgh]hihYcZh\Y
5fhgg]bWY&$$& UbXcifYX]hcf]U`dUfhbYfg\]dbckYlhYbXghcai\_U]b
5bhkYfd"CifÂfghfYUXYf East Art Map: Contemporary Art and Eastern Europe
kUgUWc``UVcfUh]cbk]h\h\YUfh]ghgº[fcid]fk]bUbXVfci[\hhc[Yh\Yf
Zcfh\YÂfghh]aYhYlhgUVcihh\YWcbhYadcfUfmUfhg]hiUh]cb]bU`acghU``
9ifcdYUbdcgh!Wcaaib]ghghUhYg UgkY``UgbYkYggUmgcbgdYW]ÂWUfh]ghg
cfUgdYWhgcZh\YfY[]cb"
Art and Social Change]gdfcXiWYX]bWc``UVcfUh]cbk]h\HUhYDiV`]g\]b["
9X]hYXVmK]``6fUX`YmUbXamgY`Z ]hhU_Ygh\YW`U]agcZkY``!_bckbUbX
acfYcVgWifYfYjc`ih]cbUfmUfhdfUWh]WYgUbX\c`Xgh\Yaidhch\Y`][\h
cZhcXUm"H\YVi`_cZh\YVcc_[Uh\YfgUb]bhYfbUh]cbU`gY`YWh]cbcZUfh]ghgº
dfcdcgU`g aUb]ZYghcg h\YcfYh]WU`hYlhgUbXdiV`]WXYW`UfUh]cbgh\UhkY
\cdYk]``VYcZjU`iYVch\hch\YghiXYbhcZUfhUbXhch\Y[YbYfU`fYUXYf
k]h\Ub]bhYfYgh]bh\]gdUfh]Wi`UfZUWYhcZh\YfY`Uh]cbg\]dVYhkYYbUfh
dc`]h]WgUbXUWh]j]ga"
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h\YgcW]U`]ghUfhh\YcfmcZK]``]UaAcff]ghch\Y\mVf]XUWh]j]ghdfUWh]WY
UggcW]UhYXk]h\h\YhkYbhm!ÂfghWYbhifm¹acjYaYbhcZacjYaYbhgº/
Zfcah\YacXYfb]ghUjUbh![UfXYgUbXh\Y]f]XYUgcZdc`]h]WU`Wcaa]haYbh
hch\cgYacjYaYbhgh\UhXYÂb]h]jY`mfY^YWhYXUfh]gh]WacXYfb]ga]bZUjcif
cZdfchYgh Wf]h]eiY ihcd]UbgcW]U`YldYf]aYbhcffYjc`ih]cbUfmdfcdU[UbXU"
GcaYcZh\YhYlhgUggYaV`YX\YfYUfYkY``!_bckbk]h\]bh\YÂY`X
cZUfh\]ghcfmcfUfYUjU]`UV`YZfcagYjYfU`gcifWYg k\]`Ych\YfgaUm\UjY
cf][]bU``mYb^cmYXcb`m`]a]hYXX]ghf]Vih]cbcfUfYWiffYbh`mX]ZÂWi`hhcÂbX/
gcaYUfYdfYgYbhYX]b9b[`]g\hfUbg`Uh]cbZcfh\YÂfghh]aY"G]lYgdYW]U``m
Wcaa]gg]cbYXYggUmgµVm;YYhU?Udif @iWm@]ddUfX >c\bA]`bYf
;YfU`XFUib][ AUf]bUJ]g\a]XhUbXH]fXUXNc`[\UXfµZifh\YfYld`cfY
Vch\h\Y\]ghcf]WU`WcbhYlhUbXh\YWcbhYadcfUfmg]hiUh]cb"
7
Gran Fury Kissing Doesn’t Kill: Greed and Indifference Do, ca. 1989
Poster
Courtesy Gran Fury Records, Manuscripts and Archives
Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lennox and
Tilden Foundations
Sture Johannesson The Pen is Mightier than the Sword?, 1976
KulturHuset, Stockholm
Peter Kennard Defended to Death, 1983
Photomontage
Bonnie Sherk Documentation of Crossroads Community (The Farm), 1974–1981
Solvognen US Independence Day demonstration, Rebild, Denmark, 1976
Courtesy Nils Vest / www.vestfilm.dk
Next page:
William Morris Design for the membership card
of the Democratic Federation, 1883
Courtesy the Working Class Movement Library, Salford
PARTS 1– V
PART 1
THE COMMUNE
AND
THE COMMONWEAL
1871
Against the background of the Commune,
the role of the artist as a citizen and the
political nature of art and its institutions is
explicitly considered. Gustave Courbet and
William Morris independently develop the
notion that, as art is inextricably linked with
its social context, political activism forms
a legitimate part of an artist’s practice. During
the upheavals of the Paris Commune, Courbet
proposes the effective de-institutionalisation
of art. Morris sees his dream of art as part
of the daily life of all members of society
as inseparable from the creation of an
egalitarian social order.
LET TERS, OCTOBER 1870 – APRIL 1871
G U STAV E CO U R B E T
Extracts from letters written by
Gustave Courbet, Paris 1870–71.
From Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu (ed.
and trans.), Letters of Gustave Courbet,
University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Letter to the German army and the German artists, Paris, 29 October 1870
@]ghYb.`YUjYigmcif?fiddWUbbcbg kYk]``aY`hh\Yahc[Yh\Yfk]h\cifg/
h\Y`UghWUbbcb ]hgidhifbYXainn`YWcjYfYXk]h\Ud\fm[]UbVcbbYh
d`UbhYXcbUdYXYghU`fYgh]b[cbh\fYYWUbbcbVU``g.h\UhWc`cggU`acbiaYbh
h\UhkYº``YfYWhhc[Yh\Yfcbh\Yd`UWYJYbXaYk]``VYcifWc`iab Zcfmci
UbXZcfig h\YWc`iabcZh\YdYcd`Y h\YWc`iabcZ;YfaUbmUbX:fUbWY
ZcfYjYfZYXYfUhYX"
Letter to his colleagues, Paris, 18 March 1871
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VmdfchYWh]b[]hUbXhU_]b[UkUm]hggdcbhUbY]hm"H\UhZYiXU`UddfcUW\
gighU]bYXVmUXYgdch]WUbXX]gWfYh]cbUfm[cjYfbaYbh dfcXiWYXbch\]b[
VihUf]ghcWfUh]WUbXh\YcWfUh]WUfh ^ighh\Ycddcg]hYcZh\YacXYfb
hYbXYbW]Yg cZcifbYYXg cZcifd\]`cgcd\mUbXh\YfYjY`Uh]cbcZaUb
aUb]ZYgh]b[\]g]bX]j]XiU`]hmUbX\]gacfU`UbXd\mg]WU`]bXYdYbXYbWY"
HcXUm k\YbXYacWfUWmaighX]fYWhYjYfmh\]b[ ]hkci`XVY]``c[]WU`Zcf
Ufh k\]W\`YUXgh\Ykcf`X hc`U[VY\]bX]bh\YfYjc`ih]cbh\Uh]ghU_]b[
d`UWY]b:fUbWYUhh\]gacaYbh"
=bcfXYfhcUW\]YjYh\]g[cU` kYk]``X]gWigg]bUbUggYaV`mcZUfh]ghg
h\Yd`Ubg dfc^YWhgUbX]XYUgh\Uhk]``VYgiVa]hhYXhcig ]bcfXYfhc
UW\]YjYh\YbYkfYcf[Ub]gUh]cbcZUfhUbX]hgaUhYf]U`]bhYfYghg"
36
Art and Social Change 1871
Letter to the artists of Paris, 7 April 1871
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h\Y]bhY``YWhiU`UgkY``Ugh\YaUhYf]U`dc]bhcZj]Yk""""
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Letter to his family, Charenton, 30 April 1871
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cZh\YAUmcf XY`Y[UhYhch\YA]b]ghfmcZDiV`]W9XiWUh]cb ZcifcZh\Yacgh
]adcfhUbhcZÂWYg]bDUf]g=[Yhid =YUhVfYU_ZUgh UbX=g]hUbX=dfYg]XY
hkY`jY\cifgUXUm"Am\YUX]gVY[]bb]b[hcZYY``]_YUVU_YXUdd`Y"6ih]b
gd]hYcZU``h\]gU[]hUh]cb]bam\YUXUbX]bamibXYfghUbX]b[cZgcW]U`
eiYgh]cbgh\Uh=kUgbchZUa]`]Ufk]h\ =Ua]bgYjYbh\\YUjYb"
DUf]g]gUhfiYdUfUX]gY"""H\YDUf]g7caaibY]gacfYgiWWYggZi`
h\UbUbmZcfacZ[cjYfbaYbhh\Uh\UgYjYfVYYb"
Walter Crane and William Morris
Pamphlet for Alfred Linnell: A Death
Song, 1887
Courtesy the Working Class
Movement Library, Salford
Bloody Sunday, 1887
Illustrated London News
53
PART II
THE MASSES;
ART IS DEAD;
CONSTRUCTION;
UTOPIANS;
THE ARTISTS’
INTERNATIONAL;
1917
Artists take positions against the background
of an increasing polarisation of the forces of
capital and labour; proletarian propaganda
appropriates high cultural forms in the US ;
the Dadaists extend their critique of authority
to the form of language itself; many strands
of the European avant-garde declare the end
of art itself; artists in revolutionary Russia seek
to construct a new practice that reflects a new
form of social organisation; the Surrealists
connect the liberation of the forces of production
with the liberation of the imagination; the events
surrounding the Spanish Civil War mark the end
of the revolutionary project of 1917.
The Paterson Strike Pageant, 1912
The cast of the pageant photographed in front of
the 200-foot-wide backdrop painted by John Sloan
Courtesy Tamiment Library, New York University
EN AVANT DADA :
A HISTORY OF DADAISM
R IC H AR D H U E L S E N B EC K
Extract from En Avant Dada: Eine Geschichte des
Dadaismus, Hanover: Paul Steegemann, 1920.
From Robert Motherwell, Dada Painters and Poets,
Cambridge Uni. Press, 1989.
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9ldfYgg]cb]ga X]gWcjYfYXUVfcUX UbX]b;YfaUbm hfiYhcghm`Y
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ZcfkUfXUbYkUfh Zfcak\]W\h\YmYldYWhh\YfYU`]gUh]cbcZbYk]XYU`g"
5bXgccb"<YfYh\YX]ZZYfYbWYVYhkYYbcifWcbWYdh]cbUbXh\UhcZ
HnUfU]gW`YUf"K\]`YHnUfUkUggh]``kf]h]b[.¹Dada ne signifie rienº8UXU
aYUbgbch\]b[ ]b;YfaUbm8UXU`cgh]hgUfh!Zcf!Ufhºg!gU_YW\UfUWhYfk]h\
]hgjYfmÂfghacjY"=bghYUXcZWcbh]bi]b[hcdfcXiWYUfh 8UXU ]bX]fYWh
WcbhfUghhcUVghfUWhUfh kYbhcihUbXZcibXUbUXjYfgUfm"9ad\Ug]gkUg`U]X
cbh\YacjYaYbh cbghfi[[`Y"6ihkYgh]``bYYXYXUdfc[fUaaYcZUWh]cb
kY\UXhcgUmYlUWh`mk\Uhcif8UXU]gakUgUZhYf"H\]gdfc[fUaaYkUg
XfUkbidVmFUci`<UigaUbbUbXamgY`Z"=b]hkYWcbgW]cig`mUXcdhYX
Udc`]h]WU`dcg]h]cb.
What is Dadaism and what does it want in Germany?
1. Demands:
a) The international revolutionary union of all creative and intellectual
men and women on the basis of radical communism;
b) The introduction of progressive unemployment through comprehensive
mechanisation of every field of activity. Only by unemployment does it become
possible for the individual to achieve certainty as to the truth of life and finally
become accustomed to experience;
c) The immediate expropriation of property (socialisation) and the communal
feeding of all; further, the erection of cities of light, and gardens which will
belong to society as a whole and prepare man for a state of freedom.
2. Central council demands:
a) Daily meals at public expense for all creative and intellectual men and women
on the Potsdamer Platz (Berlin);
b) Compulsory adherence of all clergymen and teachers to the Dadaist articles
of faith;
c) The most brutal struggle against all directions of so-called ‘workers of the spirit’
(Hiller, Adler), against their concealed bourgeoisism, against expressionism
and post-classical education as advocated by the Sturm group;
d) The immediate erection of a state art centre, elimination of concepts of property
in the new art (expressionism); the concept of property is entirely excluded from
the super-individual movement of Dadaism which liberates all mankind;
e) Introduction of the simultaneist poem as a communist state prayer;
Richard Huelsenbeck En Avant DADA: A History of Dadaism
63
f ) Requisition of churches for the performance of bruitism, simultaneist and
Dadaist poems;
g) Establishment of a Dadaist advisory council for the remodelling of life in
every city of over 50,000 inhabitants;
h) Immediate organisation of a large scale Dadaist propaganda campaign
with 150 circuses for the enlightenment of the proletariat;
i) Submission of all laws and decrees to the Dadaist central council for approval;
j) Immediate regulation of all sexual relations according to the views of
international Dadaism through establishment of a Dadaist sexual centre.
The Dadaist revolutionary central council.
German group: Hausmann, Huelsenbeck.
Business Office: Charlottenburg, Kantstrasse 118.
Applications for membership taken at business office.
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fYWc[b]gYXh\Y`]a]hgcZ\]ggd]f]hiU`dcgg]V]`]h]Yg \Y_bckgh\UhYjYfm
¹gmghYaº]gUgYXiWh]cbk]h\U``h\YWcbgYeiYbWYgcZgYXiWh]cbUbXYjYfm
;cXUbcddcfhib]hmZcfÂbUbW]Yfg"
H\Y8UXU]gh Ugh\YdgmW\c`c[]WU`aUb \UgVfci[\hVUW_\]g[UnYZfca
h\YX]ghUbWYUbXWcbg]XYfg]h]adcfhUbhhc\UjYg\cYgh\UhÂhUbXUgi]h
k]h\cih\c`Yg]b]h"H\Y8UXU]gh]gUbUh\Y]ghVm]bgh]bWh"<Y]gbc`cb[Yf
UaYhUd\mg]W]Ub]bh\YgYbgYcZÂbX]b[Ufi`YZcfh\YWcbXiWhcZ`]ZY]bUbm
h\YcfYh]WU`df]bW]d`Yg Zcf\]ah\YfY]gbc`cb[YfU¹h\cig\U`hº/Zcf\]ah\Y
W][UfYhhY!VihhUbXh\YiaVfY``UUfYUgYlU`hYXUbXUgh]aY`YggUgh\Y¹h\]b[
]b]hgY`Z º"7cbgYeiYbh`m h\Y[ccX]gZcfh\Y8UXU]ghbc¹VYhhYfºh\Ubh\YVUXµ
h\YfY]gcb`mUg]ai`hUbY]hm ]bjU`iYgUg]bYjYfmh\]b[Y`gY"H\]gg]ai`hUbY]hm
Udd`]YXhch\YYWcbcamcZZUWhg]gWcaaib]ga UWcaaib]ga hcVYgifY
k\]W\\UgUVUbXcbYXh\Ydf]bW]d`YcZ¹aU_]b[h\]b[gVYhhYfºUbXUVcjYU``
gYYg]hg[cU`]bh\YXYghfiWh]cbcZYjYfmh\]b[h\Uh\Ug[cbYVcif[Yc]g"H\ig
h\Y8UXU]gh]gcddcgYXhch\Y]XYUcZdUfUX]gY]bYjYfmZcfa UbXcbYcZh\Y
]XYUgZUfh\YghZfca\]ga]bX]gh\Uh¹h\Ygd]f]h]gh\YgiacZU``aYUbgZcfh\Y
]adfcjYaYbhcZ\iaUbYl]ghYbWYº"H\YkcfX¹]adfcjYaYbhº]g]bYjYfmZcfa
64
Iskusstvo Kommuny (Art of the Commune), no.8, Petrograd,
26 January 1919. From Charles Harrison and Paul Wood,
Art in Theory, 1900–2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas,
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
A GENER AL THEORY
OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
VARVAR A STE PAN OVA
Lecture delivered at inkhuk, Moscow, 22 December 1921.
From Alexander Larentiev (ed.), Varvara Stepanova:
A Constructivist Life, London: Thames & Hudson, 1988.
UbX7cbghfiWh]j]ga
7cbghfiWh]j]ga\UgUbU`mgYXh\Y¹YggYbWYcZUfh]gh]WUWh]j]hmºUbXfYjYU`YXh\Y
bYkZUWhcfgaYbh]cbYXUVcjY":ifh\YfUbU`mg]gcZh\YfYU`WcbWfYh]gUh]cbcZ
h\YgYY`YaYbhg]bUfh\UgaUXY]hW`YUfh\Uh h\ci[\]h\Ugg\fi[[YXcZZh\Y
kUmgcZfY`][]cbUbXd\]`cgcd\m Ufh\UgVYYbibUV`Yhc[]jYidUYgh\Yh]Wg
k\]W\`YX]hhcaU]bhU]bh\YdU]bh]b[ºggY`Z!giZÂW]YbhjU`iY"=bch\Yf
kcfXg h\YUbU`mh]WU`aYh\cXkUgUdd`]YXhcUfhbchUgUg][b]ÂWUbhacXYfb
Varvara Stepanova A General Theory of Constructivism
Extract from The Messenger, New York, April 1924.
From Sondra Kathryn Wilson, The Messenger Reader,
New York: Random House Inc., 2000.
K\UhkYUfY[c]b[hcgUmbckk]``aU_YigUD\]`]gh]bYhcgcaYcZh\Y
¹Ufh]ghgº UbXhcU``cZh\YbYUf!Ufh]ghg"6ihU`]hh`Ythinkingk]``XcYjYb
UbUfh]ghgcaY[ccX"
H\YUfh]ghg UbXYgdYW]U``mh\YbYUf!Ufh]ghg UfYbck!U!XUmgZUfcjYfXc]b[
h\Y]XYUh\Uh5fhUbXDfcdU[UbXUWUbbchVYXcbY]bh\YgUaYVcc_ cfgUaY
kcf_cZUbm_]bX"¹H\YfYaighVYbcdfcdU[UbXU]bUkcf_cZUfh"ºH\Ym
Zcf[Yhh\Uhh\UhghUhYaYbh]gg]ad`mcbYcZh\YXc[aUgcZUfh UWcbjYb]Ybh
fYXiWh]cbcZUWYfhU]bdf]bW]d`YµVihh\Uh `]_YU``ch\YfXc[aUg YjYb
h\YXc[aUgcZfY`][]cb ]h]gbchUbXWUbbchVYcbY\ibXfYXdYfWYbhhfiY"
<UjYbchh\YUfh]ghgUbXh\Y¹Ufh]ghgºYjYffYÃYWhYXh\Uh ^igh`]_Yh\Y
fY`][]cb]ghg h\YmbYjYfcZZYfUbm]bXiWh]jYdfccZcZh\]gXc[aU Vihh\Ym
g]ad`mdeclare]h35bXZcfh\Yg]ad`YfYUgcbh\Uhdatakci`XcjYfh\fck
h\YXc[aU"
=hkci`XVYaiW\bYUfYfh\Yhfih\hcgUmh\]g.Art and Propaganda always do
exist side by side/Zcf]bZUWhdfcdU[UbXU]gh\YgiVgc]`cihcZk\]W\U``Ufh\Ug
[fckbµfY`][]cig Yh\]WU` fUW]U`cfW`UggdfcdU[UbXU"6ihUbX\YfYºgk\Uh
h\YbYUf!Ufh]ghgghiaV`YcjYfit is the function of art to so conceal the propaganda
as to make it more palatable to the average recipient, while yet not destroying its effect"
8]ZZYfYbhUfhgjUfm]bh\]gdifdcgYY`YaYbh.bchYjYfmdcYa bchYjYfm
`mf]W \UgUbm[YbYfU`difdcgY VihdfUWh]WU``mYjYfmghcfm\Ug"5bXYjYbh\Y
`]hh`YdcYa k\]`Ya]bigU[YbYfU`difdcgY]bdfcdU[UbXU aUm\UjYUX]fYWh
dYfgcbU`fYZYfYbWYcfU]ahckUfXgcaY]bX]j]XiU`"
Uncle Tom’s CabinO%,)&QWUb`UmgcaYW`U]aghcUfhµUbXmYh]hkUgh\Y`Ugh
kcfX]bdfcdU[UbXU"8]W_YbgkUgWYfhU]b`mU`]hYfUfmUfh]gh UbXUVcihU``\Y
kfchYkUgdfcdU[UbXU"5bXkYfYbchU``=hU`]UbUfh UbXacghcZh\Yaig]W
cZh\Ykcf`X XcbY]bh\YWUigYcZfY`][]cb3H\Yart Y`YaYbhk]``cih`Ughh\Y
dfcdU[UbXUY`YaYbh cZWcifgY/Zcf]ZUh\]b[]gU[ccXkcf_cZUfh ]hk]``gh]``
VYU[ccXkcf_cZUfhUZhYfh\YdfcdU[UbXUWUigY\UgdUggYX"K\cWUbgUm
hcXUmh\UhD\]X]Ug\UXbcdckYfZi`difdcgY]b\]gkcf_3D`UhcWYfhU]b`m\UX"
H\YfYU`Ufh]ghgUmghfi`mh\UhUfhaighbchVYWcbZcibXYXk]h\dfcdU[UbXU
UbXh\YbYUf!Ufh]gh[Yhg¹`]hYfU`ºUbXfYdYUhgh\Uhh\YdfcdU[UbXUaighbch
Yl]ghUhU``"H\YfY]gd`YbhmcZdfcdU[UbXUk]h\cihUfh VihUh`YUgha][\hm
`]hh`Ykcfh\mUfhk]h\cihdfcdU[UbXUµZcfdfcdU[UbXU]gh\Yraison d’être cZ
h\Y[fYUhYghUfhg"5gUd\mg]W]gWcbWYU`YXibXYfh\Ygi[Uf!WcUh]b[
74
THE END OF ART
TH EO VAN DO E S B U RG
De Stijl, series xii. no.9, Leiden, 1925. From
Joost Baljeu (ed.), Theo van Doesburg, New York:
Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1974.
The other collaborators of this magazine undertake no responsibility for this article.
5[U]bghJ]YbbU
5[U]bghDUf]g
5[U]bghh\YBYh\Yf`UbXg
5fhWUbbchVYfYbcjUhYX"
¹5fhº]gUFYbU]ggUbWY]bjYbh]cb k\]W\\UgVYYbWUff]YXhcUghUhYcZYlhfYaY
fYÂbYaYbh]bh\YdfYgYbhXUm"
H\]g]gh\Ygc!WU``YXabstractUfh
H\YdfcXiWh]cbcZ[ccXkcf_gcZUfhkUgUW\]YjYXcb`mUhh\YWcghcZUb
YbcfacigWcbWYbhfUh]cbidcbWYfhU]baUhhYfg"H\]gWcbWYbhfUh]cbWci`X
VYUW\]YjYXcb`mh\fci[\bY[`YWh]b[life,h\fci[\h\YjYfm`cggcZ`]ZYµ^igh
UgfY`][]cb\UXYldYf]YbWYXVYZcfY"
Today, this situation is no longer tolerable"
HcXUm`]ZY]gdUfUacibh"AcXYfb`]ZY]b[YbYfU`ÃUh`mfY^YWhgU``hYbXYbW]Yg
hckUfXg]gc`Uh]cbUbX]jcfm!hckYf!`]_YYlW`ig]jYbYgg"
=h]gUVgc`ihY`mibacXYfbhcWcbWYbhfUhYidcb^ighcbYh\]b[UgX]Xh\Y
A]XX`Y5[Yg
AcXYfb`]ZY]gVUgYXidcbWcbghfiWh]cb k\]W\]ghcgUm idcbUgmghYa
cZhYbg]cbgcfUghfiWhifU`VU`UbWY"
=bU[fYYaYbhk]h\h\]gWcbWYdhkYhccaighX]ghf]VihYcifj]hU`]hmcjYfh\Y
k\c`YfUb[YcZ`]ZYhU_Yb]bh\YVfcUXYghdcgg]V`YgYbgY"5``ch\YfUhh]hiXYg
hckUfXg`]ZYdfcXiWYhfU[YXm"
H\]gWUbVYWU``YXdfc[fYggUbX]hYlW`iXYgWcbWYbhfUh]cbcbcbY]bhYfYgh"
H\]g]gh\Ydf]aUfmfYUgcbk\mUfh]g]adfUWh]WUV`Y"
76
Dzwignia, no.4, Warsaw, July 1927. From Ryszard
Stanislawski (ed.), Constructivism in Poland 1923–1936,
Lodz: Muzeum Sztuki, 1973 and Timothy O. Benson and
Eve Frogacs (eds.), Between Worlds, LACMA , 2002.
5fYaUf_UV`YZYUhifYcZh\YYjc`ih]cbh\Uh\UgcWWiffYX]bh\YXcaU]b
cZUfhXif]b[h\Yfi`YcZacXYfbWUd]hU`]ga]gh\YZUffYUW\]b[X]j]g]cb
VYhkYYbUkcf_Yf]bUfhµh\YUfh]ghµUbXYjYfmXUm`]ZY"H\]gX]j]g]cb\UgVYYb
dUfh]Wi`Uf`mWcbgd]Wicig]bh\Yd`Ugh]WUfhg"6YZcfYkYdUgghch\YYld`UbUh]cb
cZh\YWUigYgcZgiW\X]j]g]cb kYg\ci`XaYbh]cbh\YZcfaUbXWcbX]h]cbg
cZh\Y`UVcifcZUfh]ghg]bYUf`]YfXUmg"
5bUfh]ghcZh\YdUghWYbhif]Yg UXUdhYXhcUgcW]U`gmghYaVUgYXidcb
gaU``!gWU`YdfcXiWh]cb fYaU]bYX]bUWYfhU]bXY[fYYcZ\Ufacbmk]h\]h"
5gkY_bck h\Y`]a]hgcZh\YUfhgkYfYVfcUXYfh\UbhcXUm"=bUgYbgY U`acgh
YjYfmWfUZhgaUbdfcXiW]b[igYZi`h\]b[gkUgUbUfh]gh.UWUV]bYhaU_Yf
`cW_ga]h\ WUfdYbhYf [c`Xga]h\ YhW"<Uj]b[h]aY k]h\cihhccaiW\\UghY
k]h\fY`Uh]jY`mdf]a]h]jYhcc`g \YXYWcfUhYXh\YcV^YWhg\YaUXY]bUWWcfX
k]h\WYfhU]bWUbcbgh\UhWUaYhcVYYghUV`]g\YXk]h\cihVY]b[hccVfcUX`m
YldUbXYXcfj]c`Ybh`mhfUbgZcfaYXµh\YmWci`XcZhYbgifj]jYaUbm
[YbYfUh]cbg"<ckYjYf k]h\]bgiW\UWUbcb \Y\UXUWYfhU]b]b]h]Uh]jY
dYfa]hhYX\]aVm\]ghcc`g aUhYf]U`g UbXgYbg]V]`]hm"
H\cgYWcbX]h]cbgW\Ub[YXfUX]WU``mk\YbgaU``!gWU`YWfUZhgaUbg\]d
kUggiVgh]hihYXVmWUd]hU`]ga k]h\]hgghcfamfUhYcZ[fckh\ j]c`Ybh
hYW\bc`c[]WU`id\YUjU`g ibWcbhfc``YXaUf_YhµUbXUVcjYU``k]h\]hg
aUW\]bYaUggdfcXiWh]cb]bU``UfYUg"1–
H\Ygc!WU``YXd`Ugh]WUfhgUfYX]fYWh`mXYdYbXYbhcbUfW\]hYWhifY k\]W\
]gh\YacghWcbgd]WicigZcf]hgWcb^ibWh]cbcZUih]`]hUf]UbWcbhYbhk]h\
UbUYgh\Yh]Wgifd`ig"H\YUfhcZVi]`X]b[]gacghghf]Wh`mUX^ighYXhch\Y
`]ZYWcbX]h]cbgcZh\cgYhck\ca]hdfcj]XYgUg\Y`hYfcfUkcf_g\cd"
=h]gUb]bXYlcZh\Y]faUhYf]U`ghUhY/h\Y]f¹`YjY`cZ`]ZYº/h\YgWcdYcZh\Y]f
fYei]fYaYbhgUbXbYYXg]bYjYfmXUm`]ZY/h\Y]fWi`hifYUbXh\Y]fW`Ugg
VUW_[fcibX"5\Ufacb]cigUXUdhUh]cbcZigYZi`cV^YWhg]bU\caY]bhYf]cf
Zifb]hifY ihYbg]`g YhW"hch\YZcfacZh\YVi]`X]b[]hgY`Z]bÃiYbWYgh\Y]f
1 Even a craftsman today, though
he seems to be ‘independent’, is a
slave of his improved tools. Things
have gone so far that it is more
78
expensive to make a piece of furniture
with rational simple shapes than to
make a similar piece with modernistic
curvatures. Factories, producing tools
Art and Social Change 1917
adjusted to the making of things in
certain ‘taste’, sometimes make the
most rational and humble forms
unattainable.
Vcif[Yc]g]YhckUfXgUfhUbXhckUfXg`]ZY"2– Hmd]WU``mparvenu]gh\Y]fZcbXbYgg
Zcfh\YdUgh Zcfh\YgibXfm¹ghm`YgºUbXcihXUhYXZUg\]cbg/h\Y]fgYUfW\Zcf
VYUihm]bk\Uh]gc`X k\Uh\Ug`cgh]hgih]`]hm h\Y]fVY]b[Ug\UaYXcZh\cgY
fYU`UbXigYZi`dcggYgg]cbgk\]W\h\Ym\UjYVfci[\h]bh\YagY`jYg"<YbWY
h\cgYUYgh\Yh]Wh\Ycf]YgYghUV`]g\]b[h\YZfcbh]YfgVYhkYYbVYUihmUbXih]`]hm/
cb`mh\Uh]gVYUih]Zi`k\]W\\UgbYjYfVYYbcZUbmigY cfh\Uh]gcZbcigY
bckh\YWi`hcZh\Yfi]b YhW""BYjYf ]bXYYX \Ugh\YX]gfidh]cbVYhkYYb
h\Y¹VYUih]Zi`ºUbXh\YigYZi`WcaYhcgiW\acbghfcigYlhYbhg"CbcbY\UbX
]a]hUh]cbgcZh\YcihacXYXghm`Yg/cbh\Ych\Yf\UbX fYdi[bUbhVf]W_
VUffUW_g Vi]`hk]h\cihUbmUWWcibhZcf`]j]b[WcbX]h]cbg`cX[]b[\cigYg
ZUWhcfmVi]`X]b[g"DYcd`YUfYk\c``m]ffY`YjUbhµk\Uh]gfY`YjUbh]gcb`m
h\YaUl]aia[U]bZcfh\YckbYf/Vi]`X]b[idUZUWhcfm fU]g]b[g\YXgZcf
aUW\]bYg ZcffUkaUhYf]U`gUbXZcffYUXmdfcXiWhgµWUf]b[jYfm`]hh`YZcf
h\YdYcd`Yk\cUfY[c]b[hckcf_h\YfY"K\]`YVi]`X]b[`cX[]b[\cigYg
YjYbh\YY`YaYbhUfmdf]bW]d`YgcZdfcj]X]b[Uh`YUghVYUfUV`YWcbX]h]cbg
Zcf\iaUb`]ZYUfYbY[`YWhYX"H\YdfYXca]bUbhhmdYcZW]hmVi]`X]b[]gU
hYbYaYbh\cigY]bk\]W\YjYfmWiV]WaYhfYaigh[]jYdfcÂh"GhUhYVi]`X]b[g
cZÂWYg \cigYgcZh\Yf]W\ UfYVi]`hk]h\UddUfYbh`ilifm Zcfh\]gdUmgUbX
UhhfUWhgh\YVimYfcfcZZYfgh\YfYei]fYXU]fcZgc`Yab]hm"H\Y`ilifm]g
YldfYggYXaU]b`m]bh\YcihYfhf]aa]b[.Wcfb]WYg Wc`iabg Zf]YnYg YhW"
UfY[UiX]`mghiW_UfcibXh\YZfcbhdUfhcZVi]`X]b[g Zcfh\YmUfY¹ghm`]g\º
UbXWcghjYfm`]hh`Y"H\Y]bhYf]cfgUfYVYhhYfUbXacfYWcbjYb]Ybh"GcaYh]aYg
h\YfY]ggcaY[fYYbYfmUbXUWYfhU]bWUfYZcfh\Y`][\h]b["3– 5``h\YgY
gYaV`UbWYgUfYfY^YWhYXcihf][\h]bh\YVi]`X]b[gZcfh\YdccfYfeiUfhYfg
]bh\YgYfjUbhgºfccag ]bVUgYaYbhgUbX]b[UffYhg k\YfYh\YWcbX]h]cbg
UfYg]ad`mhYff]V`Y"4–
H\Y]bÃiYbWYcZh\YgYWcbX]h]cbgµh\YfYaUf_UV`YZYUhifYgcZWUd]hU`]ga
h\YdgmW\c`c[mcZh\Yfi`]b[W`Uggµ\UgVYYbUi[aYbhYXVmh\YZU]`ifYcZh\Y
Ufh]ghghcUX^ighhch\Y]bWfYUgYXXYaUbXg"5bUfh]ghgiVaYf[YX]bh\Yc`X
aYh\cXgcZ¹WfYUh]cbº dUfh]Wi`Uf`mUbUfh]ghk]h\\]gckb]b]h]Uh]jY ]ghcc
g`ckhc_YYdidk]h\h\YdUWYcZXYjY`cdaYbh":fYeiYbh`m hcc \Y]ghcc
YldYbg]jY"5gkY\UjYU`fYUXmfYaUf_YX ]Z Y[" UfW\]hYWhifY]gWcbWYfbYX
h\Y¹UYgh\Yh]Wºg]XYfYaU]bgh\YXcaU]bcZdifYgdYWi`Uh]cb"K\UhfYaU]bg
2 Sorel pointed out the
antechambre-servitory traits in
French eighteenth-century literature.
But even after the Revolution, those
symptoms came back with remarkable
strength. Balzac, the Homer of the
bourgeoisie, gave vent in his novels to
an apparently strange, lackey-like cult
of aristocracy, debasing the quality of
many of his works. Curious symptoms
can also be remarked in Comte’s
philosophy in this respect.
3 Capitalism, in its own wellunderstood interest manifests
80
expressions of social altruism and
care for the cultural requirements in
the life of the broadest masses. Eg.
the new American bill on urban
development, which is seen as the
first step towards ‘urbanisation of
cities’, is explained by the desire to
increase profits. The rooms on the
lowest floors of skyscrapers did not
yield such incomes as would satisfy
the appetite of capitalists because of
the complete darkness in them
(caused by the narrowness of the
streets, out of proportion to the
Art and Social Change 1917
multistoried buildings). Thus,
it is simple interest rather than
humanitarian considerations that
dictates to capitalism those moves
which are illusions of healthy, modern
social tendencies in architecture.
4 The workers’ garden cities and
rationally-planned suburbs (in Britain,
Austria, Germany, the Netherlands,
Belgium) arise under the pressure of
the demands of the proletariat and
they should be treated as its concrete
achievements.
bUhifY W\UfUWhYf]gh]WcZUW]hmXkY``YfUbXUhmd]WU`dfcXiWhcZW]hm`]ZY
h\Ydccf\YU`h\WcbX]h]cbg h\Y`UW_cZZfYg\U]f gib`][\h YhW"\Ug
ZcibX]hgYldfYgg]cb]b`UbXgWUdYdU]bh]b[ ]bh\Yg]`YbWYcZ¹gh]```]jYgº
]b[YbfYdU]bh]b["
5\][\VfckgiZZcWUh]b[]b\]gW]hm`cc_gZcfh\YdckYfgcZ¹fYbYkU`º]b
h\YgcifWYcZh\Ydf]a]h]jYfcVighbYggcZh\Y¹jc`_ºUbXh\Ydf]a]h]jYhf]VYg/
\YbWYh\YZcbXbYggZcfZc`_`cfY Ylch]W]gaUbXdf]a]h]j]ga"
H\YfUd]X\YUfhVYUhcZWcbhYadcfUfm`]ZY h\Yj]c`YbWYUbXg\UfdbYgg
cZh\YW\Ub[Yg]bh\YfY`Uh]cbg\]dcZgcW]U`ZcfWYgcbcbY\UbXµUbXcb
h\Ych\Yf h\YZUW]`]hmcZVfcUXUbXfY`Uh]jY`mYUgmX]ggYa]bUh]cbcZh\Y
UW\]YjYaYbhgcZUfh]gh]WhYW\bc`c[mk]h\h\Yji`[Uf]gUh]cbh\UhWUbbchVY
Ujc]XYX]bh\YdfcWYggµU``h\]g\Ug]hgYZZYWhgcbh\YfUd]X]hmUbXj]c`YbWY
cZh\YfYjc`ih]cbg]bUfh"8if]b[UfY`Uh]jY`mg\cfhdYf]cX UbiaVYfcZ
fYjc`hg\UjYcWWiffYX]bdU]bh]b[.7`Ugg]W]ga FcaUbh]W]ga BUhifU`]ga
=adfYgg]cb]ga"5bX Xif]b[h\YhkYbh]Yh\WYbhifm h\YdUWYcZW\Ub[Y]g
UfYU`aYffm![c!fcibX"
H\]g]gghf]Wh`mfY`UhYXhcdfc[fYgg]bhYW\bc`c[m"H\YXYaUbXZcfdcfhfU]h
`UbXgWUdY gh]``!`]ZY \]ghcf]WU`cfkUfdU]bh]b[ ]``ighfUh]cb YhW"]gaYhVm
d\chc[fUd\mUbXW]bYaUk\]W\UfYVYmcbXWcadYh]h]cb]bh\Y]fdfYW]g]cb
ei]W_bYggUbXW\YUdbYggWcadUfYXk]h\h\Y`UVcifcZh\YUfh]ghh\Uh
dfYj]cig`mgUh]gÂYXh\]gbYYX"5bUfh]gh`cgYgh\Y[fcibXibXYf\]gZYYh
k\c`YXcaU]bgcZkcf_UfY`cghhc\]a"K\UhfYaU]bgUfYZcfaU`dfcV`Yag
]bhck\]W\\Y[cYgXYYdYfUbXXYYdYf"
=adfYgg]cb]ga h\YÂfghcZh\YacjYaYbhgVcfb]bh\Y¹difYºVcif[Yc]g
Uhacgd\YfY ]bhfcXiWYXh\YdfcV`YacZUbUbU`mg]gcZ`][\h]bhcUfh"H\YfY
Zc``ckYXUdYf]cXcZfUdhifYZcfh\YaUW\]bY"=bghYUXcZh\YYldfYgg]cbcZ
dYfgcbU`accXgcZXciVhZi`aYf]h ]bghYUXcZh\Y]adcjYf]g\YXWcbhYbhg
cZh\Y¹gci`gºcZUfh]ghg ]aaUhifY ZfighfUhYXUbXcZhYb`UW_]b[YjYb
UacXYgh[YbYfU`_bck`YX[Y h\YfYWUaYUfYUWh]cb.UbUkYZcfh\Y
aUfjY`gcZhYW\bc`c[m"6–
H\Ykcf_cbZcfaU`dfcV`YagdfcWYYXg.Ufh[Yhg`]VYfUhYXZfcah\Y
fi`YcZBUhifU`]ga `]hYfUfmUbYWXchY YhW"H\YfYZc``ckgUdYf]cXcZWc``YWh]jY
gYUfW\ZcfbYkZcfagUbX`UVcfUhcfmaYh\cXgcZkcf_µh\YYbXYUjcif
hcVi]`XUkcf_cZUfhZcf]hgY`Z YldfYgg]b[bch\]b[ Yl]gh]b[UgUVgc`ihY`m
gY`Z!giZÂW]Ybh" 7–
9UgY`dU]bh]b[\UgcV^YWh]jY`mVYWcaYU`ilifm UbXUXYVUgYXcbYUh
h\Uh dcifYXcihhch\YYl\]V]h]cbaUf_YhUbXYjYbhiU``mm]Y`X]b[fUh\YfaYUb
6 The ideological changes in the
plastic arts and the proof of the
influence of bourgeois ideology on
modern art will be discussed in
papers devoted to cinema and
advertising, as they represent this
ideology in the best manner.
7 Among the abundant formal
assumptions, the problem of materials
82
was decisive. An artist, considering
the constructional properties of a
material, the variety of surface
qualities of the same material
depending on the finish, the peculiar
qualities of a material when exposed
to light, etc., became aware that the
character of the things he made
should be dependent on the applied
Art and Social Change 1917
material. The problem of materials
(not treated as a fetish in the manner
of the Cubists or Suprematists)
brought forth the problem of the
utilitarian value of the work of art,
which has become the pivotal
question for certain modern artists.
Benjamin Péret photographed in the act of insulting
a priest (as published in La Révolution Surréaliste no.8,
December 1926)
Vladimir Tatlin Monument to the Third International
or Tatlin’s Tower, 1919
The maquette paraded through the streets
on a horse-drawn cart, Moscow, 1927
90
OPEN THE PRISONS !
DISBAND THE ARMY!
TH E S U RR E A LI ST G RO U P
La Révolution Surréaliste, no.2, Paris, 1925. From Franklin
Rosemont (ed.), What is Surrealism? Selected Writings of
André Breton, New York, London: Pathfinder Press, 1978.
REVOLUTION NOW AND FORE VER !
TH E S U RR E A LI ST G RO U P
La Révolution Surréaliste, no.5, Paris, 1925. From Franklin
Rosemont (ed.), What is Surrealism? Selected Writings of
André Breton, New York, London: Pathfinder Press, 1978.
CANNIBALIST MANIFESTO
OS WA LD DE AN DR A DE
‘Manifesto Antropófago’, Revista de Antropofagia, no.1,
São Paolo, May 1928. From Third Text, no.46, London,
Spring 1999. Courtesy Taylor & Francis Books uk.
KYUddfcUW\j]`]ÂWUh]cb"@ckWUbb]VU`]ga^c]bYXk]h\h\Yg]bgcZ
h\YWUhYW\]gaµYbjm igifm WU`iabm aifXYf"=h]gU[U]bghh\]gd`U[iY
cZgc!WU``YXWi`hifYXUbX7\f]gh]UbdYcd`Ygh\UhkYUWh"7Ubb]VU`g"
8ckbk]h\5bW\]YhUg]b[]b[h\Y%% $$$j]f[]bgcZ\YUjYb
]bh\Y`UbXcZ=fUWYaU!dUhf]UfW\>c}cFUaU`\c ZcibXYfcZG}cDUi`c"
Cif]bXYdYbXYbWY\UgbchmYhVYYbdfcW`U]aYX"5d\fUgYhmd]WU`cZ
8cb>c}cj].¹Amgcb dihh\]gWfckbcbmcifckb\YUXVYZcfYgcaY
UXjYbhifYfdihg]hcb\]gºKYYldY``YXh\YXmbUghm"KYaighYldY`
h\Y6fU[Ubh]bYgd]f]h h\YcfX]bUh]cbg UbXAUf]UXU:cbhYºggbiZZ"
5[U]bghgcW]U`fYU`]hm W`ch\YXUbXcddfYgg]jY fYWcfXYXVm:fYiX!fYU`]hm
k]h\cihWcad`YlYg k]h\cihaUXbYgg k]h\cihdfcgh]hih]cbgUbXk]h\cih
dYb]hYbh]Uf]Yg]bh\YaUhf]UfW\mcZD]bXcfUaU"
Oswald de Andrade
In Piratininga, in the 374th year of the swallowing of Bishop Sardinha.
Translated by the editors.
98
Art and Social Change 1917
DEUTSCHL AND DEUTSCHL AND
ÜBER ALLES
KU RT TUC HOL S KY AN D JOH N H E ARTF I E LD
DYf\Udgh\YVUg_Yh!kYUjYfgd]WhifYX\YfYg\ci`XfYUXh\Y:fYbW\amgh]W
DUi`7`UiXY`3Cfh\]b_UVcihh\YWcbWYdhcZ]aacfhU`]hm]b@Uc!hnY3
G\ci`XkYWf]h]W]gYh\YaZcfbchXc]b[gc35bXg\ci`XkYXYbmh\Yah\Y
cddcfhib]hmhcXcgcZcfYjYf3K\]W\]gbchhcgi[[Yghh\UhYbj]fcbaYbh]g
U``]adcfhUbh/cZWcifgY\YfYX]hm UbXdcgg]V`mgcaY]bYld`]WUV`Y¹lº U`gc
aUhhYf]b\iaUbXYjY`cdaYbh"6ihk\mbch[fUbhh\YgYkcf_YfgO"""Q
The wages that they really deserve but don’t get under the present system.
Extract from a letter written by
Felicia Browne, Spain, August 1936.
From Lynda Morris and Robert
Radford (eds.), A.I.A: Story of the Artist
International Association, 1933–53,
Modern Art Oxford, 1983.
British Surrealists May Day Demonstration,
Hyde Park, 1 May 1938
The Surrealists, in Neville Chamberlain
masks, protest the British government’s
non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War
Courtesy the Scottish National Gallery
of Modern Art Archive, Edinburgh
109
WE ASK YOUR AT TENTION
B R ITI S H S U RR E A LI ST G RO U P
Extract from pamphlet issued
by the British Surrealist Group
and designed by Henry Moore,
London, 1938. Courtesy the Henry
Moore Foundation.
]bhYfjYbYUgdcYhg Ufh]ghgUbX]bhY``YWhiU`gVmj]c`Ybh
cfgiVh`YgiVjYfg]cbUbXVmgh]ai`Uh]b[XYg]fY"
Eileen Agar
Hugh Sykes Davies
D. Norman Dawson
Merlyn Evans
David Gascoyne
Erno Goldfinger
G. Graham
Charles Howard
Joyce Hume
Rupert Lee
Henry Moore
Paul Nash
Roland Penrose
Herbert Read
Julian Trevellyan
114
Art and Social Change 1917
VISION IN MOTION
L Á SZLÓ MO HO LY- N AGY
Extract from László Moholy-Nagy,
Vision in Motion, Chicago: Paul
Theobald, 1947. Courtesy Hattula
Moholy-Nagy.
THE WORLD REVOLUTION;
NETWORKED RESISTANCE;
INSTITUTIONAL CONFLICTS;
RIGHTS AND IDENTITY
1968
The period that sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein
calls the ‘world revolution’. Many artists participate
in specific liberation struggles – anti-colonial
struggles, civil rights and women’s liberation for
example. At the same time the other, strong
current of the upheavals around 1968 – anti-statism
and a growing distrust of formal ideology – is
intensively developed within much art practice. The
formal institutions of art are once again attacked;
informal networks are proposed as models become
active and in all kinds of practice, from distribution
structures to political resistance, collective
production to education.
George Maciunas Fluxus Manifesto, February 1963
Courtesy the Gilbert and Lyla Silverman Collection,
Detroit and New York
120
THESES ON THE PARIS COMMUNE
S ITUATION I ST I NTE RN ATION A L
( G U Y DE BORD, AT TI L A KOTÁN YI , R AO U L VAN E IG E M )
‘Sur la Commune’, 18 March 1962.
From Ken Knabb (ed. and trans.),
Situationist International Anthology
(Revised and Expanded Edition), Berkeley:
Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006.
RESPONSE TO A QUESTIONNAIRE
FROM THE CENTER FOR
SOCIO-E XPERIMENTAL ART
S ITUATION I ST I NTE RN ATION A L
( J .V. M ARTI N , JAN STRI J BOSC H , R AO U L VAN E IG E M , R E N É V I É N E T )
Internationale Situationniste, no.9,
Paris, 1964. Courtesy Ken Knabb.
UgcW]U``m dc`]h]WU``mcfYWcbca]WU``mX]ZZYfYbhgcW]Yhm3
7YfhU]b`m"K\YbcifdYfgdYWh]jYgUfYfYU`]gYX UYgh\Yh]WgUgkY``Ug
h\Y]fbY[Uh]cbk]``VYgidYfgYXYX"
=ZkYkYfYdfYgYbh`m`]j]b[]bUbibXYfXYjY`cdYXWcibhfmcf]bcbY
giV^YWhYXhcUfW\U]WZcfagcZXca]bUh]cbWc`cb]U`]gacfU:fUbWc!hmdY
X]WhUhcfg\]d kYkci`XU[fYYh\UhUfh]ghgWUbhcUWYfhU]bYlhYbhdUfh]W]dUhY
UggiW\]bdcdi`Ufghfi[[`Yg"=bUWcbhYlhcZ[YbYfU`gcW]U`UbXWi`hifU`
VUW_kUfXbYggh\YgcW]U`ZibWh]cbcZh\YUfh]ghgh]``fYhU]bgUWYfhU]b
g][b]ÂWUbWY UbXUbchYbh]fY`mg\UaWcaaib]WUh]cb]ggh]``dcgg]V`Y
k]h\]bh\YhfUX]h]cbU`Zcfag"
=ZkYkYfY`]j]b[]bUWcibhfm[cjYfbYXVmU¹gcW]U`]ghºVifYUiWfUWm
k\YfY]bZcfaUh]cbUVcihWi`hifU`UbXch\YfYldYf]aYbhUh]cb]bUXjUbWYX
Situationist International Response to a Questionnaire from the Center for Socio-Experimental Art
6ihUggiW\h\YmkYfYhYbX]b[hcfY]bZcfWYh\Ydcg]h]cbcZcifYbYa]Yg k\c
kUbhhc]bjYbhU¹g]hiUh]cb]gaºgcUghcÂb]g\k]h\igVm]bhY[fUh]b[ig]bhc
h\YgdYWhUW`YUg^ighcbYacfYXccagXUmUYgh\Yh]W"MYhk\]`YXc]b[h\]g
h\YgYUfh]ghgkUbhYXhcfYaU]b]bh\Yg]"H\]gkUgibUWWYdhUV`YZcfig"
H\YÂ[ifYggdYU_Zcfh\YagY`jYg"
=h[cYgk]h\cihgUm]b[h\UhUbmch\Yf¹cV^YWh]jYgºcZUbmUggcW]Uh]cb
cZUfh]ghgUfYcZbc]bhYfYghhcig g]bWYkYfY[UfXh\YaUgbc`cb[Yf\Uj]b[
Ubmdc]bhk\UhgcYjYf"
*" <ck]gh\Ykcf_mciUfYdfYgYbh]b[\YfYfY`UhYXhch\YgYghUhYaYbhg3
H\Ykcf_kY\UjYcZZYfYX]bfYgdcbgYhcmciffYeiYghcVj]cig`mWUbbch
fYdfYgYbhU¹g]hiUh]cb]ghUfhº"IbXYfh\YdfYgYbhX]gh]bWh`mUbh]!g]hiUh]cb]gh
Wi`hifU`WcbX]h]cbgkY\UjYhcfYgcfhhc¹Wcaaib]WUh]cbWcbhU]b]b[]hgckb
Wf]h]eiYº k\]W\kY\UjYYldYf]aYbhYXk]h\]bYjYfmUWWYgg]V`YaYX]ia
ZfcaÂ`ahckf]h]b[ UbXk\]W\kY\UjYh\Ycf]gYXibXYfh\YbUaYcZ
détournement"G]bWYh\Y7YbhYfZcfGcW]c!9ldYf]aYbhU`5fh\Ug`]a]hYX]hg
gifjYmhch\Yd`Ugh]WUfhg kY\UjYgY`YWhYX ZfcaUacb[h\YbiaYfcig
dcgg]V]`]h]YgcZdétournementUgUaYUbgcZU[]hUh]cb A]W\`Y6YfbghY]bºgUbh]!
dU]bh]b[Victory of the Bonnot GangO%-*'Q"=hZcfagdUfhcZUgYf]Yg]bW`iX]b[
Victory of the Paris Commune, Victory of the Great Jacquerie of 1358, Victory of the
Spanish Republicans, Victory of the Workers Councils of BudapestUbXgYjYfU`ch\Yf
j]Whcf]Yg"GiW\dU]bh]b[gUhhYadhhcbY[UhY¹Dcd5fhºk\]W\]gaUhYf]U``m
UbX¹]XYc`c[]WU``mºW\UfUWhYf]gYXVmindifferenceUbXXi``Wcad`UWYbWmVm
]bWcfdcfUh]b[cb`mtoycV^YWhgUbXVmaU_]b[h\YaaYUb]b[Zi`]bUg\YUjm!
\UbXYXUkUmUgdcgg]V`Y"=bUgYbgYh\]ggYf]YgWUff]Ygcbh\YhfUX]h]cbcZh\Y
dU]bh]b[cZVUhh`Yg/UbXU`gcfYWh]ÂYgh\Y\]ghcfmcZfYjc`hgk\]W\]gbchcjYf
]bUkUmh\Uhd`YUgYgig"=hgYYagh\UhYUW\bYkUhhYadhhchfUbgZcfah\Y
kcf`X]gZcfWYXhcghUfhcihk]h\h\YUddYUfUbWYcZUnew unrealism"
KY\cdYh\UhciffYaUf_g\YfY Vch\\iacfcigUbXgYf]cig k]``\Y`d
hcW`Uf]Zmcifdcg]h]cbcbh\YdfYgYbhfY`Uh]cbg\]dVYhkYYbUfhUbXgcW]Yhm"
Situationist International Response to a Questionnaire from the Center for Socio-Experimental Art
WE PROPOSE A CULTURAL EXCHANGE
(garbage for garbage )
AMERICA TURNS THE WORLD INTO GARBAGE
IT TURNS ITS GHETTOS INTO GARBAGE
IT TURNS VIETNAM INTO GARBAGE
IN THE NAME OF UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES
(DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS)
IN THE NAME OF THE FATHERLAND
(COLLIE DOGS, NEW ENGLAND CHURCHES)
IN THE NAME OF MAN
IN THE NAME OF ART
IN THE NAME OF MONEY
AMERICA TAKES
ALL THAT IS EDIBLE, EXCHANGEABLE, INVESTABLE
AND LEAVES THE REST
THE WORLD IS OUR GARBAGE, WE SHALL NOT WANT,
WE LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES. THE REST LIE DOWN IN GARBAGE.
AND WE PLAY AS WE MAKE OUR GARBAGE
BEETHOVEN BACH MOZART SHAKESPEARE
TO COVER THE SOUND OF OUR GARBAGE MAKING
AND WE EXCLUDE THE GARBAGE FROM OUR PALACES OF CULTURE
134
Art and Social Change 1968
AND WE WILL NOT ALLOW IT TO MARRY OUR DAUGHTER
AND WE WILL NOT NEGOTIATE WITH IT OR LET IT TAKE OUR SHIPS
BUT WE ARE FACED WITH A REVOLT OF THE GARBAGE
A CULTURAL REVOLUTION
GARBAGE FERTILIZES
DISCOVERS ITSELF
AND WE OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE HAVE DECIDED TO BRING
THIS CULTURAL REVOLUTION TO LINCOLN CENTER – IN BAGS
IS NOT LINCOLN CENTER WHERE IT BELONGS?
¶
ASSEMBLE TO COLLECT GARBAGE – 5PM 12 FEBRUARY
(at 9th Street between c and d)
MARCH TO LINCOLN CENTER
BE AT LINCOLN CENTER BY 8:30PM FOR THE GARBAGE PLANTING
Black Mask We Propose a Cultural Exchange
135
Sture Johannesson Outside Cannabis Gallery with
friends, 1967
The Kingdom is Within You, 1967
Poster printed by Permild and Rosengreen, Copenhagen
136
PSYCHEDELIC MANIFESTO
S TU RE JO H AN N E S SON
Ord & Bild, (Cultural Review for
the Nordic Countries, 76th annual
volume), no.1, 1967.
One can demand that a cultural product fulfils one or more of these criteria;
that it intensifies sensory experience, creates knowledge of mankind’s situation,
eases human relations and inherits a certain general validity"
BcfXU`5_YfaUb#C``YGjYbb]b[A Socialist View on Culture
HcXUm ZcifWi`hifU`dfcXiWhgYl]ghh\Uh\UjYh\YgYZcifW\UfUWhYf]gh]Wg/
h\YdgmW\YXY`]WXfi[g`gX aYgWU`]bY dg]`cWmV]bUbX\Ug\]g\"H\YWi`hifU`
kcf_Yfºgacgh]adcfhUbhhUg_]bh\YZihifY]ghcgdfYUX]bZcfaUh]cbUVcih
h\YgYaUhhYfg"DgmW\YXY`]WXfi[gaYUbZfYYXca YeiU`]hmUbXVfch\Yf\ccX"
Joy of life! He saw it clearly. One should sell joy of life, not kitchen hardware
or brown envelopes. Joy of life demanded love as its partner, and this marriage
gave birth to ethics, the good and the right acts.
GjYb:U[YfVYf[The Costume Ball
:fYYXca]gbchUb]adYf]g\UV`Yd\fUgYc`c[]WU`OcjYfU``QcbYdihgcb
]bdf]aUfmgW\cc` ZfYYXca]gU`iadcZ\Ug\]g\]bh]bZc]` h\YZfYYXca
mciWUbbch\]XY]bmcifVcchgcfibXYfkYUfk]h\cihh\Ydc`]WYÂbX]b[]h"
:fYYXca]gUVU``cZh]bZc]`cbYgeiYYnYg]bcbYºg\UbXUbX]gfYUXmhch\fck
UkUmk\YbdckYf]bhYfjYbYg"=h]gUVigYX_bck`YX[Y]bgcW]Yhm _bck]b[
h\UhdckYfckbghfih\UbXh\Uhhfih\]ggcaYh\]b[U[fcidcZdYcd`YWUb
U[fYYidcbh\fci[\XYacWfUh]Wkcf_]b[aYh\cXgUbXaU^cf]hmdf]bW]d`Yg"
H\YWi`hifU`kcf_YfaighVYUbUfh]ghk]h\bcW`U]ahcVYhU_YbgYf]cig`m"
FY`]UV]`]hmWcaYg]bh\YZcfacZUWcdºgVUX[Y"CbYg\ci`XgY``\Ug\]g\
bchc]`dU]bh]b[gcfh\YUhfYh]W_Yhg"
Communication is everything that brings people together. The communicative field
is the in-between space. The in-between space between people. With this we can bid
the beholder farewell"
>Ybg!>cYf[YbH\cfgYbPaletten '#**
137
Gc hfih\]ggcaYh\]b[idcbk\]W\U[fcidcZdYcd`YWUbU[fYY"6ih
hfih\ºgÂY`X`]YgVYhkYYb`Y[]g`UhifYg"=bh\Y]bhYfgh]WY"K]h\h\]gkYWUbV]X
h\Ydfcd\YhgZUfYkY``"5fh]ghgk\cUddYUf]bh\Y[U``Yf]YgUgWcbZcfa]ghUbX
X]gW]d`]bYXaYaVYfgcZUdUf`]UaYbhZcfUYgh\Yh]Wh\Ycf]YgUbX]XYc`c[]Yg
OUfYQbchXYUX VihgY`Z!UadihUhYX"OH\YfY]gUQghfi[[`YUVcih[]aa]W_g
f]jU`fmUVcihh\YfYj]YkgcZWf]h]Wg]bkUhW\aYbºgib]Zcfag ]bhY``YWhiU`\U]f!
gd`]hh]b[UbXUZc`_gmfc``]bh\Y\Um"Culture distribution? GcW]Yhmºg]bhYfYgh]ghc
administer UfhUbXWi`hifY hcdcfh]cbcihk\Uh]gWcbg]XYfYXgUZYcfigY`Ygg"
The manifestation of consciousness is a kind of creation, all such things are truth
that has the same value no matter how it is articulated, academically or colloquially.
A human being with psychedelic experience recognises his or her karma, an original
universal truth and human authenticity, in art, poetry, music, theatre and
literature, in situations between person and person, between person and thing,
between person and divinity. ‘Everything is holy.’
5``Yb;]bgVYf[
Escapism? BchhcUWWYdhh\Uh]bbYffYU`]hm]g^ighUgfYU`Ugh\YcihYf]g
UgYf]ciga]ghU_YaUXYVmdYcd`Yk\c\UjYbYjYfhf]YXcf\UjYZU]`YXhc
UW\]YjYh\]g"8cbºhhU`_UVcih]hµhU_Y]h=aU[]bUh]cb]g^ighUXYYdYffYU`]hm"
Drug addiction? K]``]Ua6iffci[\gfYZYfghch\Y Naked Lunch –UZfcnYb
acaYbhk\YbYjYfmVcXmgYYgk\Uh]gg]hh]b[Uhh\YZcf_ºgdc]bh.
Hashish works as a guide to areas in the psyche that one later can return to without
taking the drug, that is one can stop smoking hashish when one has become familiar
with those landscapes which the drug has opened up the road to – just as it is the case
with other psychedelic drugs.
Alienation? 5gUbUfh]ghk]h\Ub]bWcaYVY`ckh\YVfYUX`]bY=\UjYVYYb
g]nYXidcbYgh]aUh]cbUbXdYbU``mhUlYXgch\Uh]h]g]adcgg]V`YZcfaY
hckcf_Zcfam`]j]b[UgYad`cmYX]bUbmWcadUbmVYWUigYcZgYeiYghYfYX
]bWcaY"H\]gk\]`Yh\Ya]`]hUfmUbXYWcbca]WdckYfgh\UhVYbYYXbch
UWWcibhZcfcfYjYbgh]W_Xckbh\YgYfj]WYYbjY`cdYk]h\h\YV][Vf]VYg"
How many dark hours / I’ve been thinking of this
that Jesus Christ was / betrayed by a kiss
but I can’t think for you / you have to decide
whether Judas Iscariot had / GOD on his side.
6cV8m`Ub
Communication?KUjYmcif\UbXgBchcb`mgcibXUbX`][\hVihU``aUhhYf
aUb]ZYghg]hgY`Z]bkUjYg"7caaib]WUh]cb]gkUjYg"KYWUbkUjYhcYUW\
ch\Yf"KUjYmcif\UbXg
138
Art and Social Change 1968
Sture Johannesson Outside Cannabis Gallery with Ninna,
model for the poster Hash Girl and ‘the Macedonian
children who liked to play in and around the gallery’, 1967
139
Albert Hunt The Russian Revolution,
staged in the streets of Bradford, November 1967
140
HOPES FOR GRE AT HAPPENINGS
A LB E RT H U NT
Extracts from Hopes for Great Happenings,
concerning ‘The Russian Revolution in
Bradford’ of 1967, New York: Taplinger
Publishing Co., 1977.
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Zcfa"H]W_Yh`Yggh\YUhfY"CihcZacbYmUbXWcbhfc`"
First you gotta pin down what’s wrong with the West. Distrust of human nature,
which means distrust of Nature. Distrust of wildness in oneself literally means
distrust of Wilderness.
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‘E XPERIENCE 68’
TH E AVANT- GAR DE ARTI ST S G RO U P
Letters and statements from
the participants in ‘Experience 68’
www.concentric.net/~lndb/padin/
lcptuc.htm
13 May 1968
Open letter sent by the painter Pablo Suarez to the director, Jorge Romero Brest
on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Experience 68’ at the Di Tella Institute
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g]hiUhYcifgY`jYg]bh\Y`]a]hdcg]h]cb3>ighmYghYfXUm=WcaaYbhYXhcmci Ug
=fYWU`` h\Uhh\Ykcf_kci`X[ccbaUhYf]U``mX]gUddYUf]b[Zfcah\YgWYbY
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]bjYbhYX"5fYWYbhkYUdcbfYghcfYgaYUb]b[hcUWh]cb"H\YfY]gbcXUb[Yf
]bUghcfYX]gd`Umk]bXck"
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=bgh]hihY\UgXYjY`cdYX hcUWWYdh]hcf^iX[Y]h"HcXUm=XcbchUWWYdhh\Y
=bgh]hihYh\UhfYdfYgYbhgWi`hifU`WYbhfU`]gUh]cb ]bgh]hih]cbU`]gUh]cb h\Y
]adcgg]V]`]hmcZjU`i]b[h\]b[gUhh\YacaYbh]bk\]W\h\YmWc]bW]XYk]h\
h\YaYX]ia VYWUigYh\Y]bgh]hih]cbcb`m`Yhg]bU`fYUXmdfYgh][]cigdfcXiWhg
Zcfh\cgYh\UhigYh\Ya cfh\Ym\UjY`cghif[YbWmcfUfYbchX]gWigg]V`Y[]jYb
h\YXY[fYYcZdfcZYgg]cbU`]gak\]W\dfcXiWYgh\Ya h\Uh]g igYgh\Ya
k]h\cihfibb]b[Ubmf]g_"H\]gWYbhfU`]gUh]cb]adYXYgh\YaUggX]ZZig]cb
cZYldYf]YbWYgh\UhUfh]ghgWUbVf]b[UVcih"H\]gWYbhfU`]gUh]cbaU_YgU``
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157
Atelier Populaire The Start of a Long Struggle, 1968
Poster
Courtesy the International Institute of Social History
( IISH ), Amsterdam
165
POSITION PAPER Nº1
ON REVOLUTIONARY ART
E MORY DO UG L A S
The Black Panther, Berkeley,
24 January 1970.
Revolutionary Art does not demand any more sacrifice from the revolutionary
artist than what is demanded from a traitor (Negro) who draws for the oppressor.
Therefore, the creation of revolutionary art is not a tragedy, but an honour and
duty that will never be refused.
FYjc`ih]cbUfm5fhVY[]bgk]h\h\Ydfc[fUaaYh\Uh<iYmD"BYkhcb
]bgh]hihYXk]h\h\Y6`UW_DUbh\YfDUfhm"FYjc`ih]cbUfm5fh `]_Yh\YDUfhm
]gZcfh\Yk\c`YWcaaib]hmUbX]hghchU`dfcV`Yag"=h[]jYgh\YdYcd`Yh\Y
WcffYWhd]WhifYcZcifghfi[[`Y k\YfYUgh\YFYjc`ih]cbUfm=XYc`c[m[]jYg
h\YdYcd`Yh\YWcffYWhdc`]h]WU`ibXYfghUbX]b[cZcifghfi[[`Y"6YZcfYU
WcffYWhj]giU`]bhYfdfYhUh]cbcZh\Yghfi[[`YWUbVY[]jYb kYaighfYWc[b]gY
h\UhFYjc`ih]cbUfm5fh]gUbUfhh\UhÃckgZfcah\YdYcd`Y"=haighVYUk\c`Y
UbX`]j]b[dUfhcZh\YdYcd`Yºg`]jYg h\Y]fXU]`mghfi[[`Yhcgifj]jY"HcXfUk
UVcihfYjc`ih]cbUfmh\]b[g kYaighg\cchUbX#cfVYfYUXmhcg\cchk\Yb
h\Yh]aYWcaYg"=bcfXYfhcXfUkUVcihh\YdYcd`Yk\cUfYg\cch]b[ kY
aighWUdhifYh\YhfiYfYjc`ih]cb]bUd]Whcf]U`ZUg\]cb"KYaighZYY`k\Uh
h\YdYcd`YZYY`k\ch\fckfcW_gUbXVchh`YgUhh\YcddfYggcfgch\Uhk\Yb
kYXfUkUVcih]hµkYWUbfU]gYh\Y]f`YjY`cZWcbgW]cigbYgghc\UbX[fYbUXYg
UbXXmbUa]hYhcVY`UibW\YXUhh\YcddfYggcf"FYjc`ih]cbUfm5fh[]jYg
Ud\mg]WU`WcbZfcbhUh]cbk]h\hmfUbhg UbXU`gcYb`][\hYbgh\YdYcd`Yhc
Wcbh]biYh\Y]fj][cfcigUhhUW_VmYXiWUh]b[h\YaUggYgh\fci[\dUfh]W]dUh]cb
UbXcVgYfjUh]cb"
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WcaYcihj]Whcf]cig"
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]bh\Yghfi[[`YZcf6`UW_DYcd`Y"<]gUfhVYWcaYgUhcc`Zcf`]VYfUh]cb"
FYjc`ih]cbUfm5fhWUbh\YfYVmdfc[fYggUgh\YdYcd`Ydfc[fYggVYWUigY
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HcWcbWY]jYUbmhmdYcZj]giU`]bhYfdfYhUh]cbgcZh\Yghfi[[`Y h\Y
FYjc`ih]cbUfm5fh]ghaighWcbghUbh`mVYU[]hUh]b[h\YdYcd`Y VihVYZcfYcbY
U[]hUhYgh\YdYcd`Y Ugh\Yghfi[[`Ydfc[fYggYg cbYaighaU_Yghfcb[fcchg
Uacb[h\YaUggYgcZh\YdYcd`Y"H\YbUbXcb`mh\YbWUbUFYjc`ih]cbUfm
5fh]ghfYbYkh\Yj]giU`]bhYfdfYhUh]cbcZFYjc`ih]cbUfm5fh]bXYÂb]hY`mibh]`
166
Extract from letter to Jack Burnham
in Kaspar Koenig (ed.), Hans Haacke –
Framing and Being Framed –
7 Works 1970–1975, The Press of
Nova Scotia College of Art and
Design, Halifax; New York University
Press, New York, 1975.
h\YYbXcZh\YkUf]bJ]YhbUa"
H\YfY]gbc^igh]ÂWUh]cbZcfh\YYb^cmaYbhcZUfhk\]`YkYUfY]bjc`jYX]b
h\YaUggaifXYfcZdYcd`Y"HcXUmh\YaigYiagYfjYgbchgcaiW\UgUb
Yb`][\hYb]b[YXiWUh]cbU`YldYf]YbWY Ug]hXcYgUX]jYfg]cbZfcah\YfYU`]h]Yg
cZkUfUbXgcW]U`Wf]g]g"=hWUbcb`mVYaYUb]b[Zi`]Zh\Yd`YUgifYgcZUfhUfY
XYb]YX]bghYUXcZfYjY``YX]b"KYVY`]YjYh\UhUfh]hgY`Z]gUacfU`Wcaa]haYbh
hch\YXYjY`cdaYbhcZh\Y\iaUbfUWYUbXUbY[Uh]cbcZh\YfYdfYgg]jYgcW]U`
fYU`]hm"H\]gXcYgbchaYUbh\UhUfhg\ci`XWYUgYhcYl]ghcfhcVYdfcXiWYXµ
YgdYW]U``m]bgYf]cigh]aYgcZWf]g]gk\YbUfhWUbVYWcaYUghfcb[k]hbYgg
UbXZcfacZdfchYghµcb`mh\YgUbWh]ÂWUh]cbcZUfhg\ci`XWYUgYXif]b[
h\YgYh]aYg"
New York, October 30, 1969
Guerrilla Art Action Group:
Jon Hendricks
Jean Toche
A CALL FOR THE IMMEDIATE
RESIGNATION OF ALL
THE ROCKEFELLERS FROM
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
G U E RR I LL A ART AC TION G RO U P
10 November 1969, New York.
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UgUX]g[i]gY UWcjYfZcfh\Y]fVfihU`]bjc`jYaYbh]bU``gd\YfYgcZh\Y
kUfaUW\]bY"
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XcbUh]cbgcZkcf_gcZUfhhch\YAigYiacZAcXYfb5fh"KYUgUfh]ghgZYY`g
h\Uhh\YfY]gbcacfU`^igh]ÂWUh]cbk\UhgcYjYfZcfh\YAigYiacZAcXYfb
5fhhcYl]ghUhU``]Z]haighfY`mgc`Y`mcbh\YWcbh]biYXUWWYdhUbWYcZX]fhm
acbYm"6mUWWYdh]b[gc]`YXXcbUh]cbgZfcah\YgYkYU`h\mdYcd`Y h\Y
aigYia]gXYghfcm]b[h\Y]bhY[f]hmcZUfh"H\YgYdYcd`Y\UjYVYYb]bUWhiU`
Wcbhfc`cZh\YaigYiaºgdc`]W]Ygg]bWY]hgZcibX]b["K]h\h\]gdckYfh\Ym
\UjYVYYbUV`YhcaUb]di`UhYUfh]ghgº]XYUg/ghYf]`]gYUfhcZUbmZcfacZgcW]U`
dfchYghUbX]bX]WhaYbhcZh\YcddfYgg]jYZcfWYg]bgcW]Yhm/UbXh\YfYZcfY
fYbXYfUfhhchU``m]ffY`YjUbhhch\YYl]gh]b[gcW]U`Wf]g]g"
%"5WWcfX]b[hc:YfX]bUbX@ibXVYf[]b\]gVcc_ The Rich and the SuperRich h\YFcW_YZY``Yfgckb*)cZh\YGhUbXUfXC]`WcfdcfUh]cbg"=b%-**
UWWcfX]b[hcGYmacifA"<Yfg\]b\]gVcc_ Chemical and Biological
Warfare h\YGhUbXUfXC]`7cfdcfUh]cbcZ7U`]Zcfb]Uµk\]W\]gUgdYW]U`
]bhYfYghcZ8Uj]XFcW_YZY``Yf7\U]faUbcZh\Y6cUfXcZHfighYYgcZh\Y
AigYiacZAcXYfb5fhµ`YUgYXcbYcZ]hgd`UbhghcIb]hYXHYW\bc`c[m
7YbhYfihWZcfh\YgdYW]ÂWdifdcgYcZaUbiZUWhif]b[bUdU`a"
&"5WWcfX]b[hc@ibXVYf[ h\YFcW_YZY``YfVfch\Yfgckb&$cZh\Y
AW8cbbY``5]fWfUZh7cfdcfUh]cbaUbiZUWhifYfgcZh\YD\UbhcaUbX
6Ubg\YY^YhÂ[\hYfk\]W\kYfYigYX]bh\Y?cfYUbKUf"5WWcfX]b[hc
<Yfg\ h\YAW8cbbY``7cfdcfUh]cb\UgVYYbXYYd`m]bjc`jYX]bW\Ya]WU`
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178
Art and Social Change 1968
'"5WWcfX]b[hc;Ycf[YH\UmYf]b\]gVcc_ The War Business h\Y7\UgY
AUb\UhhUb6Ub_cZk\]W\8Uj]XFcW_YZY``Yf]g7\U]faUbcZh\Y6cUfXµ
UgkY``Ugh\YAW8cbbY``5]fWfUZh7cfdcfUh]cbUbXBcfh\5aYf]WUb
5]f`]bYgUbch\YfFcW_YZY``Yf]bhYfYghµUfYfYdfYgYbhYXcbh\YWcaa]hhYY
cZh\Y8YZYbgY=bXighfm5Xj]gcfm7cibW]`X]UWk\]W\gYfjYgUgU`]U]gcb
[fcidVYhkYYbh\YXcaYgh]WUfagaUbiZUWhifYfgUbXh\Y=bhYfbUh]cbU`
@c[]gh]WgBY[ch]Uh]cbg]`bk\]W\fYdcfhgX]fYWh`mhch\Y=bhYfbUh]cbU`
GYWif]hm5ZZU]fg8]j]g]cb]bh\YDYbhU[cb"
H\YfYZcfYkYXYaUbXh\Y]aaYX]UhYfYg][bUh]cbcZU``h\YFcW_YZY``YfgZfca
h\Y6cUfXcZhfighYYgcZh\YAigYiacZAcXYfb5fh"
New York, November 10, 1969
Guerrilla Art Action Group:
Silvianna
Jon Hendricks
Poppy Johnson
Jean Toche
Supported by The Action Committee for the Art Workers Coalition
GAAG A Call for the Immediate Resignation of All the Rockefellers from the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art
179
LET TER TO RICHARD M. NIXON
G U E RR I LL A ART AC TION G RO U P
Guerrilla Art Action Group
No.1 White Street
New York, N.Y. 10013
Jon Hendricks
Jean Toche
180
Art and Social Change 1968
INSERTIONS INTO IDEOLOGICAL
CIRCUITS, 1970–75
C I LDO M E I R E LE S
Extracts from artist’s notes on Insertions into Ideological
Circuits (1970) and an interview with Antônio Manuel (1975)
from Gerardo Mosquera (ed.), Cildo Meireles, London:
Phaidon, 1999.
Cildo Meireles Insertions into Ideological Circuits, 1970–75
185
Cildo Meireles Insertions into Ideological Circuits:
Cédula Project, 1970
Rubber stamp on banknotes
Zero Dollar, 1978–84
Litho offset on paper
Courtesy the artist and Galleria Luisa Strina
186
Extracts from Radical Software, vol.1 no.1–3
Courtesy Ira Schneider, Daniel Giglotti, the authors
and the Daniel Langlois Foundation.
187
R ADICAL SOF T WARE, VOL.1 Nº1,
THE ALTERNATE TELE VISION
MOVEMENT
PHYLLI S G E R S H U N Y AN D B E RY L KOROT
Editorial, Radical Software,
vol.1 no.1, New York, 1970.
Phyllis Gershuny and Beryl Korot Radical Software, vol.1 no.1, The Alternate Television Movement
189
THE VIDEOSPHERE
G E N E YO U NG B LOOD
Extract from Gene Youngblood
‘The Videosphere’, Radical Software,
vol.1 no.1, New York, 1970.
THE MEDIA MUST BE LIBERATED, MUST BE REMOVED FROM PRIVATE
OWNERSHIP AND COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP, MUST BE PLACED IN THE
SERVICE OF ALL HUMANITY. WE MUST MAKE THE MEDIA BELIEVABLE. WE MUST
ASSUME CONSCIOUS CONTROL OVER THE VIDEOSPHERE. WE MUST WRENCH
THE INTERMEDIA NETWORK FREE FROM THE ARCHAIC AND CORRUPT
INTELLIGENCE THAT NOW DOMINATES IT.
190
Art and Social Change 1968
CYBERNETIC GUERRILL A WARFARE
PAU L RYAN
Part 1 of Paul Ryan, ‘Cybernetic
Guerrilla Warfare’, Radical Software,
vol.1 no.3, New York, 1971.
To fight a hundred times and win a hundred times is not the blessing of blessings.
The blessing of blessings is to beat the other man’s army without getting
into the fight yourself.
The Art of War GibHni
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YXiWUh]cbU`]bgh]hih]cbg gidYfaUf_Yh]b[ W]h]Yg h\Yc]`g`]W_Wcad`Yl YhW"
YhW"H\YmUfYfibb]b[igXckb fibb]b[XckbcbigUbXk]h\ig"<ckXc
kY[YhcihcZh\YkUm3<ckXckYXYjY`cdbYkkUmg3H\]gg\]dcZghUhY
Wcbh]biYghccgW]``UhY]bhcfibUkUmZfca]hgdYcd`YUbX]hgd`UbYhUfm
fYgdcbg]V]`]h]Yg k\]`YYZZcfhgWcbh]biYhcgYXiWYigcbhcVcUfX]b[h\]g
g]b_]b[g\]dµYXiWUh]cbU``cUbg ZY``ckg\]dg `ckYf]b[h\Yjch]b[U[Y"
K\YfYX]XB]lcbWcaYZfcaUbmkUm3<ckX]Xh\Uh`YZhcjYfZfcah\YXUmg
cZ9`j]g[YhhcVY7UdhU]bcZcifg\]d AUghYfcZcifZUhY3
<ckaUbm5aYf]WUbgcbWY\cff]ÂYXVmh\YfacbiW`YUfkUfUfYbck
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cZfY`]YZUhh\YdfcgdYWhcZUk\]hY\Y``ZcfU``3
191
Wcaaib]WUh]cbgUbXWcbhfc`aU]bhU]bYX3K\Uh]bZcfaUh]cb]g\UV]hiU``m
k]h\\Y`XUbX\ck3Ci[\h]hhcVY^UaaYX3<ckXckY^Ua]h3<ckXckY
_YYdh\YUWh]cbgaU``Ybci[\gc]h]gfY`YjUbhhcfYU`dYcd`Y3<ckXckY
Vi]`XidUb]bX][YbcigXUhUVUgY3K\YfYXckYfcjYUbXghf]_YbYlh3
HfUX]h]cbU`[iYff]``UkUfZUfY]gWcbWYfbYXk]h\_bck]b[h\YhYffU]b"KY
aighYldUbXh\]ghcUZi``ibXYfghUbX]b[cZh\YYWc`c[]WU`h\fYg\c`Xgk]h\]b
k\]W\kYacjY"KYaigh_bckcifgY`jYg]bUWmVYfbYh]WkUm _bckh\Y
YbYam]bUWmVYfbYh]WkUmUbX_bckh\YYWc`c[mgch\UhkYWUbhU_YUbX
hU_YWUfYcZh\Yd`UbYh]bhUWh"
H\YhfUX]h]cbU`WcbWYfb]gÂbX[ccX[YbYfU`g"K\UhºgXYg]fUV`YZcfig]g
ad hoc\YhYfUfW\]YgcZdckYfk\]W\\UjYh\Y]f`c[]gh]WgXckb"7mVYfbYh]Wg
ibXYfghUbXgh\UhdckYf]gX]ghf]VihYXh\fci[\cihh\YgmghYa"FY`YjUbh
dUh\kUmgg\]ZhUbXW\Ub[Yk]h\h\YWcbX]h]cbg"H\YbUjm\UgXYjY`cdYX
kUfd`Ubgk\YfYh\YWcaaUbX]bUÃYYhacjYgZfcag\]dhcg\]dYjYfm
%)a]bihYg"=h]gbYUf]adcgg]V`Yhc_bcW_cihh\YWcaaUbXjYggY`"
H\YhfUX]h]cbU`hf]W_gcZ[iYff]``UkUfZUfYUfYfYaUf_UV`mgi]hYXZcf
WmVYfbYh]WUWh]cb]bUb]bZcfaUh]cbYbj]fcbaYbh"HcgWUbVf]YÃm.
A]l]b[¹ghfU][\hºacjYgk]h\¹ZfYU_ºacjYg"Ig]b[ghfU][\hacjYg
hcYb[U[Yh\YYbYam ZfYU_acjYghcVYUh\]aUbXbch`Yhh]b[h\YYbYam
_bckk\]W\]gk\]W\"
Fibb]b[UkUmk\Yb]hºg^ighhcc\YUjm"@YUjYh\YYbYamºgghfcb[
d`UWYgUbXgYY_h\YkYU_";ck\YfYmciWUbaU_YUX]ZZYfYbWY"
G\Ud]b[h\YYbYamºgZcfWYgUbX_YYd]b[cifckbibg\UdYX
h\YfYVmVYUh]b[h\YaUbmk]h\h\YZYk"
:U_]b[h\YYbYamcih"Gifdf]gYUhhUW_g"
H\YVig]bYggcZXYWYdh]cb]b[iYff]``UkUfZUfY]gUhifb!cZZZcfacgh
dYcd`Y]bh\]gfY`Uh]jY`mcdYbWi`hifY"H\]g]gg]ad`mUbUfYUh\UhbYYXVY
VYhhYfibXYfghccX ]ZkYUfYhcVYgiWWYggZi`"DYcd`YZYY`h\UhWcbWYU`]b[
]gibYh\]WU`"MYhcjYfYldcgifYaYUbgibXYfXYjY`cdaYbh"AUbmdfc^YWhgX]Y
cZhccaiW\diV`]W]hm"H\YfY]gUgYbgY]bk\]W\kYUfY]bZcfaUh]cb^ib_]Yg
ZYYX]b[cZZYUW\ch\Yfºgib`]jYX\cdYg"H\YaYX]UfYdYUhYX`mghibhgh\Y
[fckh\cZU`hYfbUhYWi`hifY]bh\]gWcibhfmh\fci[\gUhifUh]cbWcjYfU[Y"
=h]g\UfXZcfUb5aYf]WUbhc^igh_YYd\]gacih\g\ihUbX[YhgcaYh\]b[
Wcc_]b["MciUfYk\UhmcifYjYU`"H\YghUfgmghYafYbXYfg]adchYbhVm
cjYfYldcgifYUbX_YYdgch\Yfg]adchYbhh\fci[\bcYldcgifY"GYYa]b[
X]ZZYfYbh]gacfY]adcfhUbhh\UbaU_]b[UX]ZZYfYbWY"8YWYdh]cb]b
[iYff]``UhUWh]Wg]gUbUWh]jYkUmcZUjc]X]b[Wcbhfc`VmUbU`]Yb U`]YbUh]b[
]bhY``][YbWY"K\YbUdc`]WYaUbhU_YgmcifbUaY \YhU_YgcjYf"=_bck
U[imk\c]g]bjYbh]b[Ubch\Yf]XYbh]hmZcfh\YWcadihYf"H\YfY]gUj]fhiY
cZa]ghfighUbXk]gXca]b_bck]b[g][b]ÂWUbh`macfYUVcihmcifgY`Zh\Ub
mcifYjYU`"Love thy label as thyself"
We retreat in space, but we advance in time"
AUc
194
Art and Social Change 1968
7cibhh\YWcgh"KYbYYXhcXYjY`cdUb]bZcfaUh]cbUWWcibh]b[gmghYa
UWi`hifU`WU`Wi`ig"
IgYh\YYbYamºggidd`m"K]h\dcfhUV`Yj]XYccbYWUbhU_Yh\Y5aYf]_Ub
amh\c`c[mf][\hcZZh\YU]fUbXigY]hUgdUfhcZUbYkdYfWYdhiU`Wc``U[Y"
6YÃYl]V`Y"=bWmVYfbYh]Wg ÃYl]V]`]hm h\YaU]bhYbUbWYcZU[ccX[iYgg]b[
kUm]gWf]h]WU`"
DUh]YbWY"7mVYfbYh]Wg]g]b\YfYbh`mWcbWYfbYXk]h\h]a]b[UbXh]aYXYg][b"
=h]gUdfchfUWhYXkUf"
Do not repeat a tactic which has gained you victory, but shape your actions in an
infinite variety. Water sets its flow according to the ground below; set your victories
according to the enemy against you. War has no constant aspect as water has no
constant shape.
GibHni
Paul Ryan Cybernetic Guerrilla Warfare
195
PROCL AMATION OF
THE OR ANGE FREE STATE
TH E K A BO UTE R S
5 February 1970, Amsterdam Gnome City.
From Peter Stansill, David Zane Mairowitz
(eds.), BAMN: Outlaw Manifestos and
Ephemera 1965–70, Penguin, 1971.
gcW]U`]gh]WVYWUigY]h\UgUVc`]g\YXdYfgcbU`ckbYfg\]dcZh\YaYUbgcZ
dfcXiWh]cb"6ihh\]ggcW]U`]ga\Ugbch\]b[hcXck]h\h\Yc`XVifYUiWfUh]W
UbXWYbhfU`]gYXgcW]U`]ga"=h]gXYWYbhfU`]gYXUbXUbh]!Uih\cf]hUf]Ub"=h`YUjYg
UgaUbmXYW]g]cbgUgdcgg]V`Yhch\YdYcd`Ycbh\Ygdch ]bh\Y]fjUf]cig
WcibW]`g"=h]gbc`cb[Yfh\YgcW]U`]gacZh\YW`YbW\YXÂgh VihcZh\Y
Ybhk]bYXÂb[Yfg h\YYfYWhdYb]g h\YÃm]b[VihhYfÃm h\YhciW\]b[[`UbWY
h\Y\c`mWUh"=h]gUbUfW\]ga"AYYh]b[hc[Yh\Yfcb):YVfiUfmUh5_\bUhcb
]bh\YÂfgh[bcaYW]hm h\YÂfghWcaaibYcZh\YCfUb[Y:fYYGhUhY h\Y
dfcjchUf]UhdfcdcgYgh\YZc``ck]b[aYUgifYghcYghUV`]g\UgY`Z![cjYfb]b[
]bXYdYbXYbhgcW]Yhm.
%"H\YZcibX]b[cZdYcd`YºgXYdUfhaYbhg jc`ibhUfm ibgU`Uf]YXghYYf]b[
Wcaa]hhYYg"5``h\Y]fXcWiaYbhgUfYdiV`]W"H\YmUfYUWWcibhUV`YhckYY_`m
aYYh]b[gk\YfYYjYfmcbYWUbjc]WYWf]h]W]gag"H\YfYUfY%&dYcd`Yºg
XYdUfhaYbhg.
UPeople’s Department for Public Works" :cfh\Yh]aYVY]b[]hk]``d`Ubh
bYk[fYYbYfmUbXVfYU_idachcfkUmg"
VPeople’s Department for Social Affairs" :]fghhUg_.YghUV`]g\aYbh
cZkcf_YfgºUbXbY][\Vcif\ccXWcibW]`g"Ghf]j]b[ZcfYeiU`dUm"
WPeople’s Department for Environmental Hygiene"
FYghcfUh]cbcZV]c`c[]WU`VU`UbWY"
X6ifcXY?fU_Yf1–k]``VYgcW]U`]gYX]bhch\Y
People’s Department for People’s Housing"
YPeople’s Department for Traffic and Waterways"
6i]`X]b[cZfUd]XZfYYdiV`]WhfUbgdcfh"
Z People’s Department for the Satisfaction of Needs" 6i]`X]b[cZUbU`hYfbUh]jY
YWcbcamk\]W\XcYgbºh\UjYdfcÂhUg]hg[cU` Vihh\YgUh]gZUWh]cb
cZ\iaUbbYYXg"
[People’s Department for the Spiritual Health of the People"
H\]gfYgYUfW\YgUbXWifYgh\YWUigYgcZWf]a]bU`]hmUbXh\ighU_Yg
cjYfh\Ykcf_cZh\Yc`XA]b]ghfmcZ>igh]WY"
\People’s Department for Agriculture" H\YbYkU[f]Wi`hifY]gVUgYXcb
V]c`c[]WU``mUWWYdhUV`YaYh\cXg"6fYU_]b[h\fci[\h\Yj]W]cigW]fW`Y
cZcjYf!dfcXiWh]cbUbXXYghfiWh]cbcZgifd`igYg k\]W\]gWUigYX
Vmh\YigYcZ]bgYWh]W]XYg"
] People’s Department for Education" 9ghUV`]g\aYbhcZUbh]!Uih\cf]hUf]Ub
bifgYf]YgUbXdf]aUfmgW\cc`g"9bWcifU[YaYbhcZdfc^YWhYXiWUh]cb"
5XjUbWYaYbhcZh\YcbY!aUb!cbY!jchYdf]bW]d`Y]b\][\YfYXiWUh]cb
]Y"gW\cc`UbXib]jYfg]hmWcibW]`g"
1 Amsterdam squatting
organisation.
198
Art and Social Change 1968
^ People’s Department for Sub-Culture and Creativity" HU_YgcjYfh\Y^cV
cZh\YA]b]ghfmcZ7i`hifY FYWfYUh]cbUbXGcW]U`Kcf_"
_H\YdYcd`Yºgib]jYfg]hmZcfgUVchU[YUbXdgYiXc!Yfch]W]ga]ggcW]U`]gYX
]bhch\YPeople’s Department for Sabotage of Power and Force hcfYd`UWY
h\YA]b]ghfmcZ8YZYbWY"
` People’s Department for International Coordination" Ghf]jYgZcfYldUbg]cb
cZh\YbYkgcW]YhmUbXh\YZcibX]b[cZUb]bhYfbUh]cbU`gUVchU[Y
Wcaaib]hm"
&"H\Yhckb\U``cZh\YbYkgcW]Yhm]gdfYgYbh`m`cWUhYX]bh\YdfYa]gYg
cZ<YfYb[fUW\h'), 5aghYfXUa"
'"H\Yhckb\U``cZh\Yc`XWcaaib]hmcbh\YCiXYN]^XgJccfVif[!kU`
k]``UWhUg9aVUggmZcffY`Uh]cbgk]h\h\Yc`XgcW]Yhm"H\YDfcjcWcibW]`
aYaVYf]gUddc]bhYXUaVUggUXcf"
("H\YdiV`]WUh]cbcZUState Journal cZh\YCfUb[Y:fYYGhUhYUbX
UMunicipal Journal cZh\Y;bcaY7]hm 5aghYfXUa"BYkaYUgifYg
k]``VYUbbcibWYX]bh\Ya"
)"D`Ubh]b[cZUbYkNational Monument on the Dam. UbcfUb[YhfYY
gmaVc`cZh\YbYkgcW]Yhm"8UbW]b[UfcibXh\YcfUb[YhfYYk\]`Yg]b[]b[
h\YbYkDYcd`YºgUbh\Ya ¹H\Yck`gUh]bh\YY`agº"
The Kabouters Proclamation of the Orange Free State
199
CALL TO THE ARTISTS
OF L ATIN AMERICA
Casa de las Americas, La Havana, 27 May 1972.
From Henry A. Millon and Linda Nochlin (eds.),
Art and Architecture in the Service of Politics,
Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1979.
Written on the occasion of the exhibition ‘ MAGNA .
Feminism: Art and Creativity’, Vienna, 1972. From Peter
Selz, Kristine Stiles (eds.), Theories and Documents of
Contemporary Art. A Sourcebook of Artists’ Writings, Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1996.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE THIRD WORLD
FILMMAKERS MEETING IN ALGIERS
Algiers, December 1973. From Gabriel Teshome (ed.),
Third Cinema in the Third World, Ann Arbor: UMI Research
Press, 1982.
Boal founded the Theatre of the Oppressed in
the mid-1970s. Extract from Jan Cohen Cruz,
Radical Street Performance, London: Routledge,
1998. Courtesy Taylor & Francis Books UK .
¹=bj]g]V`Yh\YUhfYº Wcbg]ghgcZh\YdfYgYbhUh]cbcZUgWYbY]bUbYbj]fcbaYbh
ch\Yfh\Ubh\Yh\YUhfY VYZcfYdYcd`Yk\cUfYbchgdYWhUhcfg"H\Yd`UWY
WUbVYUfYghUifUbh Ug]XYkU`_ UaUf_Yh UhfU]b U`]bYcZdYcd`Y YhW"
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8if]b[h\YgdYWhUW`Y h\YgYdYcd`Yaighbch\UjYh\Yg`][\hYgh]XYUh\Uh
]h]gU¹gdYWhUW`Yº Zcfh\]gkci`XaU_Yh\Ya¹gdYWhUhcfgº"
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Wcad`YhYhYlhcfUg]ad`YgWf]dh/Vih]h]gbYWYggUfmhcfY\YUfgYh\YgWYbY
giZÂW]Ybh`mgch\Uhh\YUWhcfgUfYUV`Yhc]bWcfdcfUhY]bhYfjYbh]cbgVmh\Y
gdYWhUhcfg]bhch\Y]fUWh]b[UbXh\Y]fUWh]cbg"8if]b[h\YfY\YUfgU`]h]g
U`gcbYWYggUfmhc]bW`iXYYjYfm]aU[]bUV`Y]bhYfjYbh]cbZfcah\YgdYWhUhcfg/
h\YgYdcgg]V]`]h]Ygk]``ZcfaU_]bXcZcdh]cbU`hYlh"
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5gaU``YlUad`Yg\ckg\ck]bj]g]V`Yh\YUhfYkcf_g"=bh\YYbcfacig
fYghUifUbhcZU\chY`]b7\]W`Umck\YfYh\Y`]hYfUWmU[YbhgcZU`Ãb1–kYfY
ghUm]b[hc[Yh\Yfk]h\($$ch\YfdYcd`Yh\Y¹UWhcfgºg]hUhgYdUfUhYhUV`Yg"
H\YkU]hYfgghUfhhcgYfjY"H\Y¹dfchU[cb]ghº]bUacfYcf`Ygg`ciXjc]WYhc
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]b\]gcd]b]cb]h]ghccVUX"H\YkU]hYfXcYgbch`]_Yh\YfYaUf_VihhY``gh\Y
WighcaYfh\Uh\YWUbW\ccgYgcaYh\]b[à la carte k\]W\\YaUm`]_YVYhhYf"
H\YUWhcfW\ccgYgUX]g\WU``YXbarbecue à la pauper"H\YkU]hYfdc]bhgcihh\Uh
]hk]``Wcgh\]a+$gc`Yg hck\]W\h\YUWhcfUbgkYfg U`kUmg]bUfYUgcbUV`m
`ciXjc]WY h\Uhh\Uh]gbcdfcV`Ya"A]bihYg`UhYfh\YkU]hYfVf]b[g\]ah\Y
VUfVYWiY h\YdfchU[cb]ghYUhg]hfUd]X`mUbX[YhgfYUXmhc[YhidUbX`YUjY
h\YfYghUifUbh k\Ybh\YkU]hYfVf]b[gh\YV]``"H\YUWhcfg\ckgUkcff]YX
YldfYgg]cbUbXhY``gh\YdYcd`YUhh\YbYlhhUV`Yh\Uh\]gVUfVYWiYkUgaiW\
VYhhYfh\Ubh\YZccXh\YmUfYYUh]b[ Vihh\Yd]hm]gh\UhcbY\UghcdUmZcf]h"
1 ALFIN stands for Operacion
Alfabetizacion Integral, or Integral
Literacy Operation.
a]bihYg3<ckWUbh\]gVY Af"<YUXkU]hYf39ld`U]b]hhcaYº
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WighcaYfg U`hYfbUhY`m`Ui[\gUbXVYWcaYggYf]cig k\]`Yh\YfYghUifUbh
]ghfUbgZcfaYX]bhcUdiV`]WZcfia"H\Y¹dfchU[cb]ghºUg_gh\YkU]hYf\ck
aiW\\Y]gdU]XhcgYfjYh\YVUfVYWiYUbXcZZYfghcfYd`UWY\]aZcfh\Y
bYWYggUfmbiaVYfcZ\cifg"5bch\YfUWhcf cf][]bU``mZfcaUgaU``j]``U[Y]b
h\Y]bhYf]cf [YhgidUbXXYW`UfYgh\UhbcVcXm]b\]gj]``U[YaU_Yg+$gc`Yg
dYfXUm/h\YfYZcfYbcVcXm]b\]gj]``U[YWUbYUhh\Ybarbecue a la pauper"H\Y
g]bWYf]hmcZh\]gUWhcf k\ckUg VYg]XYg hY``]b[h\Yhfih\ acjYXh\cgYk\c
kYfYbYUf\]ghUV`Y"
:]bU``m hcWcbW`iXYh\YgWYbY Ubch\YfUWhcf]bhYfjYbYgk]h\h\YZc``ck]b[
dfcdcg]h]cb.
Friends, it appears as if we are against the waiter and the headwaiter and this does
not make sense. They are our brothers. They work like us, and they are not to blame
for the prices charged here. I suggest we take up a collection. We at this table are
going to ask you to contribute whatever you can, one sol, two soles, five soles,
whatever you can afford. And with that money we are going to pay for the barbecue.
And be generous, because what is left over will go as a tip for the waiter, who is our
brother and a working man.
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acbYmhcdUmh\YV]``"GcaYWighcaYfgk]``]b[`m[]jYcbYcfhkcgc`Yg"
Ch\YfgZif]cig`mWcaaYbh.
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dfcXiWYXVmh\]gZfYYh\YUhfY]gaiW\acfYdckYfZi`UbX`cb[Yf`Ugh]b["
Augusto Boal Invisible Theatre
215
FOR SELF-MANAGEMENT ART
ZOR AN P O P OV IC´
October 75, Belgrade. From Peter Selz, Kristine Stiles
(eds.), Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art.
A Sourcebook of Artists’ Writings, Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1996.
THE SWORD IS MIGHTIER
THAN THE SWEDE ?
S TU RE JO H AN N E S SON
On the occasion of the exhibition
‘Om Tyskland – i Tiden’ (‘On
Germany – In Time’) at Kulturhuset
in Stockholm, 1976.
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=hcdYbYXUWWcfX]b[hcd`Ub VihkUgWYbgcfYX]bhchU`Vm?i`hifb|abXYb
aib]W]dU`Wi`hifYWcibW]`h\UhfYZYfghch\Ya]b]ghfmcZWi`hifYcb%%>ibY
k]h\cihUbmcZh\YYl\]V]h]b[Ufh]ghgVY]b[bch]ÂYX"H\YZc``ck]b[]g
UbUWWcibhcZh\YYjYbhgVmh\YUfh]ghGhifY>c\UbbYggcb"
6UW_[fcibX1,,U
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UbXdc`]h]WU`fYdfYgg]cb]bKYgh;YfaUbm cbh\YcWWUg]cbcZh\YgYf]Yg
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]bh\Y`UghWcid`YcZmYUfgUbXk\]W\\UjYVYYbUWhiU`]gYXh\fci[\h\Y
UWWYdhUbWYcZh\YdfcV`YaUh]WdUfU[fUd\,,Ucb%*>UbiUfm %-+*"G]bWY
h\YVY[]bb]b[cZAUfW\ GkYXYbºgIb]cbcZKf]hYfg\UgfYgdcbXYXhc]hg
KYgh;YfaUbWc``YU[iYgºUddYU`ZcfgmadUh\mUbXaUXYh\YZc``ck]b[
UbbcibWYaYbh.
The new West German law which affects the freedom of speech and opinion will
in the long term deprive people of control over their own lives. There are only two
ways to react, through self-censorship or through the creation of a new underground
literature. An underground literature in the middle of Europe is a fantastic idea for
exactly through this is violence conveyed. – The violence that various groups in the
world and also West Germany have committed has outraged us in the same way
as other people. But from this to setting up a law that forbids the citizens an open
discussion of political violence is more than just a big step. From our point of view
these are not comparable measures.
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fYgdcbg]V]`]hm"KYcZh\Ykcf_[fcidWci`X\Ub[cih]bh\YWUZUbXkUhW\
Zfcah\YVYghgYUhgUgW]j]`gYfjUbhgcZh\YZcfY][ba]b]ghfm G|dc!U[Ybhg
VifYUiWfUhgcZ?i`hif\igYh WcibW]``cfg hcdfUb_`UkmYfgUbXMcib[
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¹UjYfmgYbg]h]jYUbXX]ZZigY\UddYb]b[UfcibXI`f]_YAY]b\cZ º"
Xb%&>ibY %-+*"
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ArbetetdiV`]g\YX]bUbUfh]W`Ycb&>ibYh\YZc``ck]b[ghUhYaYbhcZa]bY.
It goes to show that we have a paragraph 88a in Sweden, even if it has not been
inscribed in the law. But there is no need for it. Instead, guards of the constitution
have been placed in charge of all the bigger galleries. Those guards see to it that only
what is ‘suitable’ appears. Artistic freedom is thwarted and instead of hiring artists
to create posters for exhibitions, advertising agencies are hired. This way, one can be
sure to get a product that does not offend.
222
Art and Social Change 1968
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\YaUXYUdcfhfU]hcZAUc"
World leaders from the Assyrian king Sargon II to Adolf Hitler have always known
that art is amongst the most powerful trumpets. That is why the leaders have been
afraid of art, and at the same time eager to make it their servant.
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Sture Johannesson The Sword is Mightier than the Swede?
Freedom is only possible in the struggle for liberation.
=ZkYUfYUkUfYcZh\Y`]a]hUh]cbg h\YbkY`]jY]bUdf]gcb"
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%-''
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DUfhcZ(cZh\Y`UkZur Wiederherstellung eines nationalen Berufsbeamtentums
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Sture Johannesson The Sword is Mightier than the Swede?
225
Sture and Ann Charlotte Johannesson Ulrike Meinhof, 1976
View of the exhibition at Kulturhuset, Stockholm
Flyer for the exhibition
226
POSITION PAPER : CROSSROADS
COMMUNIT Y ( THE FARM )
BON N I E S H E R K
Extract from a presentation at the First International
Symposium of the Center for Critical Enquiry,
San Francisco Art Institute, November 1977.
Bonnie Sherk Documentation of Crossroads Community
(The Farm), 1974–1981
Making a Sundial, 1975
Next page:
Freeway and Farmhouse, 1975
Farm and Freeway, 1975
228
229
ART HYSTERICAL NOTIONS
OF PROGRESS AND CULTURE
VA LE R I E JAU DON AN D JOYC E KOZLOF F
Heresies, no.4, 1978. From Hilary Robinson (ed.), Feminism
– Art – Theory: An Anthology 1968–2000, Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing, 2001.
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Valerie Jaudon and Joyce Kozloff Art Hysterical Notions of Progress and Culture
237
G]fH\caUg5fbc`X Painting in Islam %-&,.¹h\YdU]bhYfkUgUddUfYbh`m
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238
Art and Social Change 1968
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Valerie Jaudon and Joyce Kozloff Art Hysterical Notions of Progress and Culture
THE DOCKL ANDS PHOTO-MUR ALS
PE TE R DU N N AN D LORR AI N E LE E SON
Docklands Community Poster Project, 1982–85
www.cspace.org.uk/cspace/archive/docklands/
dock_arch.htm
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FYjc`ih]cb"H\YbUaY¹d\chc!aifU`ºkUgWc]bYXVmUfhWf]h]WF]W\UfX7cf_2–
k\YbgYUfW\]b[ZcfkcfXghcXYgWf]VYh\]gUgdYWhcZh\Ykcf_"AYggU[Yghc
1 Formed by artists Peter Dunn
and Loraine Leeson.
2 Peter Dunn notes that this term
was in fact coined by Alan Thompkins,
then PA to Tony Banks at the GLC ,
but that it was indeed Richard Cork
that first used it in a publication.
245
Loraine Leeson and Peter Dunn The Changing Picture
of Docklands – Community Photo-Mural, 1982–85
5.49 m × 3.66 m
First sequence of 8 photo-murals
What’s Going On Behind Our Backs? (1/8)
Big Money is Moving In (3/8)
Next page:
The Scrap Heap (5/8)
Shattering The Developer’s Illusions… (7/8)
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Śk]ęhc^Uńg_UGhfYYh#C`XHckb#"
The O. Alternative of Warsaw
Translated by Weronika Szczawinska.
256
Art and Social Change 1968
OPER ATING MANUAL
FOR LESZEK MAJ
OR ANG E A LTE RN ATIV E
Leszek Maj – Instrukcja Obsługi,
a flyer distributed by the
Pomara´nczowa Alternatywa (Orange
Alternative) in Warsaw, ca.1988.
RETROABSTRACTION;
ART IS NOT ENOUGH;
ELECTRONIC CIVIL DISOBEDIANCE;
THE ARTICULATION OF PROTEST;
THE FUTURE IS SELF-ORGANISED
1989
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise
of the Net. In Cuba, artists withdraw from
producing or exhibiting artwork in protest against
state restrictions; community art turns to artists’
involvement in community activism; new forms
of practice emerge at the intersection of art,
technology and political activism; self-institution
becomes a primary strategy; the manifold discourse
of the anti-globalisation movement offers a context
which encompasses diverse oppositional practices.
GEOMETRIC RETROABSTR ACTION
DE S I DE R IO N AVARRO
]h]g^ighk\UhmcigYY
Eyes that don’t see,
heart that doesn’t feel
Dcdi`Uf
Why look afar?!
Stay put
And wait for the communication.
– You and I,
says he,
don’t need to think,
if
the leaders do –
J`UX]a]fAU]U_cjg_]
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fYÃYWh]jYkcf_VYWcaYgdUfhcZh\UhUgkY``"6cfXYf6fi^cWUbVYdfYgYbhYX
UgUÂb]g\YXd]YWY]bUh\YUhfYZYgh]jU`cfUaigYia UbXWUbU`gcVYdUfhcZ
h\Y6cfXYf5fhKcf_g\cdUhUfU``m"5bXGUbhU:f]XUUbXh\YKfYgh`]b[6f]XY
WUbgiXXYb`mVYdUfhcZuna manifestación estudiantil en el centre de Tijuana
UghiXYbhdfchYgh]bh\Ya]XX`YcZH]^iUbU"
Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Emily Hicks The Border Art Workshop/Taller De Arte Fronterizo
275
Gran Fury With 42,000 Dead Art is Not Enough, 1988
Poster
Image above and text opposite courtesy Gran Fury
Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division,
The New York Public Library, Astor, Lennox
and Tilden Foundations
276
A PRESENTATION
G R AN F U RY
( TO M K A LI N , M IC H A E L N E S LI N E AN D JO H N LI N DE LL)
Edited from an audio recording
of a slide presentation made on the
occasion of the exhibition Pour la suite
du monde, Musee d’art contemporain,
Montreal, 1992.
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cddcg]b[[cjYfbaYbhgUbXgcW]U`]bgh]hih]cbgh\UhaU_Yh\cgY`]j]b[k]h\
U]Xg]bj]g]V`Y"H\fci[\j]giU`dfc^YWhgkY\cdYhc]bZcfaUVfcUXUiX]YbWY
UbXdfcjc_YX]fYWhUWh]cbhcYbXh\YU]XgWf]g]g"KYbUaYXcifgY`jYgUZhYf
h\YUihcacV]`YbcfaU``migYXVmibXYfWcjYfdc`]WYU[Ybhg]bBYkMcf_ UbX
kY\UjYdfcXiWYXUbiaVYfcZdfc^YWhg dcghYfg gh]W_Yfg h!g\]fhg ÃmYfg
df]bhYXUXg V]``VcUfXg giVkUmUbXVigg][bgUbXj]XYcg";fUb:ifm
fYWc[b]gYgh\UhX]fYWhUWh]cbUbXWi`hifU`UWh]j]gaUfYYldfYgg]cbgcZ
X]ZZYfYbhWcaaib]h]YgºX]ZZYf]b[bYYXg"
;fUb:ifmYaYf[YXcihcZU[fcidWU``YXUWhid]bBYkMcf_h\UhkUg
ZcfaYX]b%-,+ UbXdf]cfhch\UhUWc``YWh]jYWU``YXh\YG]`YbWY18YUh\
Wc``YWh]jY"H\YdcghYfh\YmVYWUaYVYgh_bckbZcf]gh\YSilence = Death dcghYf
k\]W\UWhiU``mdfYWYXYXh\YZcfaUh]cbcZUWhidBYkMcf_"=hkUgUb
UhhYadhcbh\Y]fdUfhhcj]Ykh\YU]XgWf]g]gUgUdc`]h]WU`gWUbXU`cbh\YgWU`Y
cZKUhYf[UhY"K\m]gFYU[Ubg]`YbhUVcihU]Xg3K\Uh]gfYU``m[c]b[cbUh
h\Y7YbhYfZcf8]gYUgY7cbhfc`3=bU`chcZkUmgh\]gdcghYfVYWUaYU`cWUh]cb
ZcfdYcd`Yk\c\UXU`chcZfU[YcfUgYbgYcZXYgdU]fUVcihh\YU]XgWf]g]g
UbXh\]g]bhifb`YXhch\YZcfaUh]cbcZUWhid"
;fUb:ifmkUgZcfaYX]b>UbiUfm%-,,cihcZUWhid ]bgcaYgYbgYUh
h\Y]bgh][Uh]cbcZ6]``C`UbXYf"6]``\UXWcaYhcUWhidBYkMcf_hccZZYfh\Y
k]bXckUhh\YBYkAigYiaZcfUdfc^YWhh\UhVYWUaY¹@Yhh\YFYWcfXG\ckº
µU`Uf[Yd\chcaifU`cZh\YBifYaVif[hf]U`g UbX]bh\YZcfY[fcibXUgYf]Yg
cZ5aYf]WUb]bX]j]XiU`gYUW\k]h\\]gcf\YfeichUh]cbUVcihU]XgWUgh]b
WcbWfYhY"6]``C`UbXYfkfchYUbYggUmUhh\Yh]aY UbX=º``fYUXUeichY
Zfca]h.
The point is a simple one – not all works of art are as “disinterested” as others, and
some of the greatest have been created in the midst of, or as a result of, a crisis. Many
of us believe we’re in the midst of a crisis today. Let the record show that there are
many in the community of art and artists who chose not to be silent in the 1980s.
277
6]``X]YXcZU]Xg]b,,UbXkYºfYjYfmh\Ub_Zi`UbXh\]b_jYfmghfcb[`m
cZ\]a]bhYfagcZ\]gYUf`mYZZcfhgUfcibXU]XgUWh]j]ga"
CbYcZh\Y]adcfhUbhghfUhY[]YgcZUWhidkUg\iacifUbXd`Um"H\YfY
kUgUbUh]cbU`WUadU][b]bh\YYUf`mdUfhcZ,,hcUfh]Wi`UhYW`YUf`mcbU
bUh]cbU`gWU`Yh\YdfcV`YagcZh\YU]XgWf]g]g"DcghYfgkYfYaUXY YUW\cbY
hcUXjYfh]gYUX]ZZYfYbhXUm"CbYUWh]cbµh\]gXUmkUghUf[YhYXhcXYU`k]h\
h\Y]ggiYcZU]XgUbX\cacd\cV]UµkUgUaUgg]jY_]gg!]b"5\i[YbiaVYf
cZdYcd`YaUfW\YX]bhch\YKYghJ]``U[YUbXh\YaUfW\Yfg aiW\hch\Y
WcbZig]cbcZh\Ydc`]WY U``VY[Ubhc_]gg]bghYUXcZ\c`X]b[g][bgidcf`m]b[
Xckb]bh\YghfYYh"=hkUgUbUhhYadhhcaU_YgYl!dcg]h]jY]aU[YgUjU]`UV`Y
hcdYcd`Yk\ca][\hbchgYYh\Yach\Yfk]gY UbXU`gchc\UjYU_]bXcZ
diV`]WWY`YVfUh]cb UW`U]a]b[cZdiV`]WgdUWY"
Cif]aU[YgUbXh\Y]bZcfaUh]cbW]fWi`UhY]bUjUf]YhmcZZcfag"KYfYWmW`Y
UbXWUbb]VU`]gYcifckbkcf_]bUbYZZcfhhcdig\]hgUWWYgg]V]`]hmVYmcbX
h\cgYk\ca][\h^ighgYY]hcbh\YghfYYh"
H\]g]gUeichYZfcaJ]hcFiggck\]W\Yld`U]bgcfWcbhYlhiU`]gYg
OgcaYcZk\UhkYXcQ ZfcaUgdYYW\[]jYbUh5`VUbm]b%-,,"J]hc
kUgUjYfmUfh]Wi`UhYaYaVYfcZUWhid"
If I’m dying from anything, it’s from homophobia. If I’m dying from anything, it’s
from racism. If I’m dying from anything, it’s from indifference and red tape. If I’m
dying from anything, I’m dying from Jessie Helms and Ronald Reagan. If I’m dying
from anything, I’m dying from the sensationalism of newspapers, magazines and
television shows which are interested in me as a human interest story only as long as
I’m willing to be a helpless victim, not if I’m fighting for my life. If I’m dying from
anything, it’s the fact that not enough rich white heterosexual men have gotten AIDS
for anyone to give a shit.
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U]XgYldYbXUV`Y"5fYbºhh\Y·f][\h¸dYcd`YXm]b[3=gh\]gaYX]WU`UdUfh\Y]X3º
=hºg]adcfhUbhhcbchYh\Uh]b5aYf]WUUhh\]gdc]bhcjYf%%$ $$$dYcd`Y\UjY
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cZh\YbiaVYfg]bZYWhYXk]h\\]jUbXk\c\UXX]YXcZU]Xg f][\hVYZcfYh\Y
278
Art and Social Change 1989
W]hmViX[Yh"KYkUbhYXhcUfh]Wi`UhYh\YfYUgcbZcfh\YfYXiWh]cbcZh\Y
biaVYfgUgYWcbca]WUbXdc`]h]WU`"KYhcc_Oh\YQgmaVc`cZh\YfYX\UbX
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cihcZ]h"=hkUgUVY[]bb]b[cZciffYWc[b]h]cbcZh\YkUmg]bk\]W\
UWh]j]gaWci`XigYh\YaYX]UhcdihcifU[YbXUZcfkUfX ]ZkYdfYgYbhYX
UXYacbghfUh]cbh\UhkUg`Y[]V`Y]bUWcadUWhZUg\]cb"5eichYZfca
>UaYg6U`Xk]b.
The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased
to be a victim – he or she has become a threat.
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fYUd]b[h\YkU[YgcZg]b"=bbcWYbhdYcd`YUfYU`gcXm]b[ZfcaU]Xg UbXh\Y
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Gran Fury A Presentation
We don’t claim invention of the style or the techniques, we have no patent on
the politics or the designs. There are AIDS activist graphics wherever there are AIDS
activists. But ours are the ones we know and can show to others, presented in
a context we can understand. We want others to keep using our graphics and
making their own.
5bXh\]gZfca@iWm@]ddUfX.
Yet racism, sexism and classism are not invisible in this society. The question of
why they should be generally invisible in visual art is still a potato too hot to pick
up. Because it is so embedded in context, activist art often eludes art critics, who are
neither the intended audience nor as knowledgeable about the issues and places as the
artists themselves have become. The multiple drawn-out forms can also be confusing,
because innovation in the international art market is understood as brand-name,
stylistic and short-term, geared to the market’s short attention-span. Conventionally
artists are not supposed to go so far beneath the surface as to provoke changed
attitudes. They are merely supposed to embellish, observe and reflect the sights
and systems of the status quo.
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WcbWYfb]b[kcaYbUbXU]Xg"H\YXYÂb]h]cbgh\UhXYgWf]VY\]jUbXU]Xg
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¹5``DYcd`YK]h\U]Xg5fY=bbcWYbh"º
282
Art and Social Change 1989
REBELLION ON LEVEL P
C H R I S TO PH SC H Ä F E R AN D C ATHY S K E N E
WITH TH E H A F E N R AN DV E R E I N
First published in A.N.Y.P. 1995/96,
revised January 98 by the Park Fiction
working group.
Acting from a subordinate position, residents organised through the <UZYbfUbXjYfY]b
(Harbour Edge Association) prevented the development of the ObankQ along the Elbe
River in St. Pauli, which was to consume millions; they caused the local development
plan to be chopped and succeeded in having a self-organised park with a view to the Elbe
realised instead. With Park Fiction, a radically participatory planning procedure could
be carried through, the first part of which – the phase of collective production of desires –
has been financed since 1997 by funds from the municipal culture department’s
programme for art in public space. This urban practice is discussed here within an
expanded urban-theoretical frame. This text is part of the social, political and artistic
Park Fiction process, opening up perspectives for further activities in the urban field.
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hc]XYc`c[]WU``mcjYfUfW\h\Y[][Ubh]WdfcWYggYgcZfYX]ghf]Vih]cb"
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UbXUaYUbgcZghUhYdckYfUbXYWcbca]W]bhYfYghg"
=hkUgW`YUfhch\YHafenrandvereinUbXh\YdUfh]W]dUh]b[Ufh]ghgZfcah\Y
jYfmVY[]bb]b[h\UhUfh]ghgWUbW`U]ah\Ydf]j]`Y[YhcXYg][bdiV`]WgdUWY^igh
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283
Christoph Schäfer and Cathy Skene with the Hafenrandverein Rebellion on Level p
289
POPOTL A
R E V A RTE
Statement on RevArte’s collaboration
with the fishing community of Popotla
to protest the construction of the
‘maquiladora’ studio in which
Twentieth Century Fox Studios’
1997 film Titanic was shot.
‘Comment faire?’, Zone d’Opacite
Offensive, Rennes: Tiqqun 2, 2001.
Don’t know what I want,
but I know how to get it.
GYlD]ghc`g ¹5bUfW\m]bh\Yi_º
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312
Art and Social Change 1989
POLITICISING SADNESS
CO LEC TIVO S ITUAC ION E S
Colectivo Situaciones, Buenos Aires,
13 February, 2007.
MAYAN TECHNOLOGIES AND
THE THEORY OF ELECTRONIC
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
RIC ARDO DO M I NG U E Z I NTE RVI E WE D BY
B E N JA M I N S H E PAR D AN D STE PH E N DU NCO M B E
Benjamin Shepard and Ronald Hayduk (ed.), ACT UP to the
WTO – Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of
Globalization, London; New York: Verso, 2002.
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cZXYaUbXgfYgi`h]b[hc[Yh\Yf]bh\Y¹jc]WYcZh\YdYcd`Yº]ggYjYfY`m
Wf]h]W]gYXµU`cb[k]h\h\YWcbWYdhcZh\Yjc]WYcZh\YdYcd`Y]hgY`Z"
Ici et Ailleurs
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ZfU[aYbh"H\YWc``YWh]jY8n][UJYfhcj;cXUfX#Acf]bg\chUWcaa]gg]cbYX
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\Yfc]g]b[dfcdU[UbXUÂ`aV`ighYfgUVcihh\YdYcd`YºgVUhh`Y kUgWU``YX
Until VictoryUbXkUgbYjYfÂb]g\YX"=hWcbg]ghgcZgYjYfU`dUfhgk]h\h]h`Yg
giW\Ug.¹h\YUfaYXVUhh`Yº ¹dc`]h]WU`kcf_º ¹h\Yk]``cZh\YdYcd`Yº ¹h\Y
YlhYbXYXkUfµibh]`j]Whcfmº"=hg\ckgVUhh`YhfU]b]b[ gWYbYgcZYlYfW]gYUbX
g\cch]b[ UbXgWYbYgcZd`cU[]hUh]cb ZcfaU``m]bUbU`acghgYbgY`YggW\U]b
cZYei]jU`YbW]Yg ]bk\]W\YjYfm]aU[Y Ug]g`UhYfdfcjYX ]gZcfWYX]bhch\Y
Ubh]!]adYf]U`]gh]WZUbhUgm":cifmYUfg`UhYf ;cXUfXUbXA]Yj]``Y]bgdYWhh\Y
2 This is not intended to imply that
there is any film that could take over
this work of mediation. However,
a film could insist that this cannot be
replaced by simple adjurations.
3 Jean-Luc Godard, Anne-Marie
Mieville, Ici et Ailleurs, France, 1975,
52 min.
A CONCISE LE XICON OF/FOR
THE DIGITAL COMMONS
R AQS M E DIA COLLEC TIV E
Extract from Raqs Media Collective,
Sarai Reader 03: Shaping Technologies,
Delhi: The Sarai Programme Centre
for the Study of Developing Societies,
2003.
Raqs Media Collective A Concise Lexicon of / for the Digital Commons
349
THE REVENGE OF THE CONCEPT:
ARTISTIC E XCHANGES,
NET WORKED RESISTANCE
B R IAN HO LM E S
Lecture delivered at the symposium of the exhibition
‘Geography – and the Politics of Mobility’, Generali
Foundation, Vienna, 18 January 2003 and published in
Confronting Capitalism: Dispatches from a Global Movement,
Brooklyn: Soft Skull Press, 2004.*
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gcaY'$W]h]YgUfcibXh\Ykcf`X cb%*AUm/ZcifXUmgcZdfchYghUbXf]ch]b[
]b;YbYjU VY[]bb]b[h\UhgUaYXUm/U)$ $$$!ghfcb[aUfW\h\UhfYUW\YX
6fUg]`]Ucb&$AUm/dfchYghgU``cjYf=bX]UUZhYfU\i[YXYacbghfUh]cb]b
<mXYfUVUXU[U]bghh\Ykhccb&AUm"H\YZc``ck]b[mYUf @cbXcbFYW`U]a
h\YGhfYYhg`UibW\YXh\Y]XYUcZU¹WUfb]jU`U[U]bghWUd]hU`º]bÂbUbW]U`WYbhfYg
UWfcggh\Ykcf`XZcfh\YXUmcZh\Y;,giaa]h %,>ibY.h\YfYkYfYUWh]cbg]b
cjYf($W]h]Yg ]bW`iX]b[UhYb!h\cigUbX!ghfcb[¹WUfb]jU`cZh\YcddfYggYXº
VmB][Yf8Y`hUdYcd`YgU[U]bghhfUbgbUh]cbU`c]`WcadUb]Yg"=bh\YZUWYcZ
hfUbgbUh]cbU`WUd]hU`]ga UbYhkcf_YXfYg]ghUbWYkUgVcfb `cWU`UbX[`cVU`
hUWh]WU`UbXghfUhY[]W.UbYk_]bXcZdc`]h]WU`X]gg]XYbWY gY`Z!cf[Ub]gYXUbX
UbUfW\]gh X]ZZigY`m]bhYfWcbbYWhYXUbXcdYfUh]b[cb`mZfcaVY`ck mYhUV`Y
hcghf]_YUhh\Y[fYUhYghWcbWYbhfUh]cbgcZdckYf"K\Uh]gh\YghfYb[h\cZ
giW\acjYaYbhg3H\Yib`]_Y`mUddYU`hcU¹Xc!]h!mcifgY`Z[Ycdc`]h]Wgº.
UW\UbWYZcfdYfgcbU`]bjc`jYaYbh]bh\YhfUbgZcfaUh]cbcZh\Ykcf`X"
H\YgY_]bXgcZUWh]cbgUfYUVcihUgZUfUgcbYWci`X]aU[]bYZfcaU
aigYia/mYhk\YbmciUddfcUW\h\Ya mciWUbZYY`gcaYh\]b[X]gh]bWh`m
Ufh]gh]W"H\YmVf]b[hc[Yh\Yfh\Yai`h]d`]W]hmcZ]bX]j]XiU`YldfYgg]cbUbX
* Thanks to participants of the
WorldInfo Con in Amsterdam,
December 2002, for ideas; and
to Felix Stalder, Ken Wark and
350
Keith Hart, for critiques of an initial
written version circulated on the
electonic mailinglist Nettime.
Art and Social Change 1989
1 There is as yet no ‘history’
of these ongoing movements,
but information and stories
can be found at www.apg.org
http://multitudes.samizdat.net/
article.php3?id_article=54
3 Anthony Davies and Simon Ford,
‘Art Networks’, www.societyofcontrol.
com/research/davis_ford.htm
Further quotes are from this
article and ‘Culture Clubs’,
www.infopool.org.uk/cclubs.htm
Brian Holmes The Revenge of the Concept: Artistic Exchanges, Networked Resistance
described at www.darpa.mil/iao/
TIASystems.htm, has since been
defunded by the US Congress.
For comprehensive information on
the pursuit of mass surveillance
Art and Social Change 1989
techniques, see the report of the
International Campaign Against
Mass Surveillance, at www.i-cams.org
Zagreb: Arkzin, 2003, online at
www.u-tangente.org
Brian Holmes The Revenge of the Concept: Artistic Exchanges, Networked Resistance
353
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=hkUgUbUbh\fcdc`c[]gh ?Uf`Dc`Ubm] k\cdfcj]XYXh\Yacghghf]_]b[
XYgWf]dh]cbcZUgmghYa]WWf]g]g ]bUVcc_WU``YXThe Great Transformation
diV`]g\YX]b%-(("H\YghcfmVY[]bgk]h\h\YYbW`cgifYcZWcaaib]hm
dUghifY`UbXg]b9b[`UbX _bckbUgcommons k\]W\kYfYhfUbgZcfaYXk]h\
ZYbWYg]bhcdf]jUhYdfcdYfhm"H\]gdf]jUh]gUh]cbcZfYgcifWYg`YXhch\Y
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acbYmhcXYjY`cdh\Y]bhYfbUh]cbU`WiffYbWmcZ[c`XVi``]cb"Dc`Ubm]dUmg
gdYW]U`UhhYbh]cbhch\YX]fYWh]jYfc`Yh\Uh]bXYdYbXYbhVUb_Yfgd`UmYX]bh\Y
WfYUh]cbcZh\Y[c`XghUbXUfX k\]W\gYfjYXUgUib]jYfgU` Vih`Y[U``mdf]jUhY
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kUfZUfY"=hkUgh\Y[fUXiU`UVUbXcbaYbhcZh\Y]bhYfbUh]cbU`[c`XghUbXUfX
ibXYfh\YdfYggifYcZfYdYUhYXÂbUbW]U`VfYU_Xckbgh\Uh`YX ]bh\Y%-'$g
hch\YfYWcbgh]hih]cbcZghf]Wh`mbUh]cbU`YWcbca]Yg W`cgYX]bcbh\YagY`jYg
UbXgiV^YWhhcjUf]cigZcfagcZWYbhfU`d`Ubb]b[fUb[]b[Zfcah\YfY`Uh]jY`m
VYb][bBYk8YU` hcBUn]gaUbXGhU`]b]ga"6ihDc`Ubm] kf]h]b[]b%-((
8 See Bob Jessop, The Future of the
Capitalist State, Cambridge: Polity,
2002, pp.12–14. In specific relation to
money (which is sold massively as a
commodity on international currency
markets, Jessop notes: ‘Money’s ability
to perform its economic functions
depends critically on extra-economic
institutions, sanctions and personal
and impersonal trust. Insofar as
354
money circulates as national money,
the state has a key role in securing a
formally rational monetary system;
conversely, its increasing circulation
as stateless money poses serious
problems regarding the re-regulation
of monetary relations.’ (p.14).
9 For example, a government
‘Superfund’ programme was deemed
necessary in the US in 1980, to clean
Art and Social Change 1989
up toxic waste on land that companies
had used as free dumping grounds.
Since 1995 corporate taxation for this
fund has been stopped, and since 2002
the Bush administration, hostile to the
expense, is curtailing Federal funding.
As though the ecological balance
were at once priceless and impossible
to pay for.
11 Colectivo Situaciones, 19 y 20
Apuntes sobre el nuevo protagonismo
social, Buenos Aires: De Mano en
Mano, 2002.
Art and Social Change 1989
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h\YYb][aUcZh\YbYhkcf_YXdfchYghg"
>ighcbYacfYh\]b["=XcbchkUbhhcUWWcfXUbmdf]j]`Y[Y ]bk\Uh
Zc``ckg hch\UhgiddcgYX`macfY¹UXjUbWYXºZfUWh]cbcZh\Ykcf`Xdcdi`Uh]cb
k\]W\]ggcXYYd`m]bjc`jYXk]h\Y`YWhfcb]WbYhkcf_g"=h\]b_h\Ycddcg]h]cb
VYhkYYbh\Y¹BYhºUbX¹GY`Z ºµVYhkYYbUacXYfb]g]b[dfcWYggh\UhYbZcfWYg
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XYhYfa]bYgUXYgdYfUhYUbXfY[fYgg]jYfYhfYUhhch\YÂlUh]cbgcZ`cWU`]XYbh]hm
µ]gg]ad`mZU`gY"12
– AcfY]bhYfYgh]b[]gh\YX]j]XYVYhkYYbh\YdcggYgg]jY
]bX]j]XiU`]gacZh\YÃYl]V`YdYfgcbU`]hm UbXUWcbWYfbZcf\iaUb
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cZWi`hifU`UbXgW]Ybh]ÂW_bck`YX[Y]gUhghU_Y"<YfYh\YYggYbh]U`ghfi[[`Y
]ghccjYfhU_YUbXX]ggc`jYh\Y`Ub[iU[YcZ£ä bchh\fci[\UfYhifbhch\Y
12 The opposition structures
Manuel Castells’s three-volume work
on the ‘information age’; it is discussed
in the prologue to the first volume,
The Rise of the Network Society, op. cit.,
pp.1–28, and returns throughout the
second volume, The Power of Identity,
Oxford: Blackwell, 1997.
Brian Holmes The Revenge of the Concept: Artistic Exchanges, Networked Resistance
357
W`cgYX VifYUiWfUh]WZfUaYkcf_gcZh\Y?YmbYg]UbghUhY Vih]bghYUXh\fci[\
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h\]gZcifh\ÂY`XcZfYg]ghUbWY k\]W\hciW\YgW`cgY`mcb\iaUb`Ub[iU[YVih
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gmghYa]WWf]g]g"
]]]¶ =h]gkY``_bckbh\Uhh\Y@]bilcdYfUh]b[!gmghYa_YfbY` UbXZfYY
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\UbXg"H\]g]ggcaYh\]b[h\Uhei]W_`mWUi[\hh\YUhhYbh]cbcZUfh]ghg
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WU``YXh\Y¹\][\!hYW\[]ZhYWcbcam"º13– H\YYldfYgg]cbfYWU``gUbch\Yf
Ubh\fcdc`c[]gh bchDc`Ubm]VihAUfWY`AUigg h\YUih\cfcZh\YZUacig
YggUmcb¹H\Y;]Zhº"<]gYggYbh]U`Wcbhf]Vih]cbkUghcibXYfgWcfY Uhh\Y
jYfm\YUfhcZacXYfbYWcbca]WYlW\Ub[Y h\YdfYgYbWYcZach]jYg
]ffYXiW]V`Yhch\YWU`Wi`Uh]cbcZh\YjU`iYcZaUhYf]U`cV^YWhg UbXU`gccZ
h\Y]bX]j]XiU`]bhYfYghcbYa][\h\UjY]bdcggYgg]b[h\Ya"5g6UfVfcc_
dc]bhgcih h\Y\Yf]hU[YcZAUiggkUgjYfmaiW\U`]jY]bU`hYfbUh]jYW]fW`Yg
\]g]XYUg\Uj]b[]bgd]fYXh\YG]hiUh]cb]ghg k\cdUggYXh\Yacbhch\YXc!]h!
mcifgY`ZaYX]UYh\]WcZh\YDib_acjYaYbh"6ihacgh`mk\UhZiY``YXh\Y
X]gWigg]cbcZh\Y=bhYfbYh[]ZhYWcbcamkUgbchh\Ycfm Vihh\Yg]ad`Y
dfUWh]WYcZUXX]b[]bZcfaUh]cbhch\YbYh"5gF]g\UV5]mYf;\cg\Yld`U]bYX
the economy of the Net begins to look like a vast tribal cooking-pot, surging
with production to match consumption, simply because everyone understands –
instinctively, perhaps – that trade need not occur in single transactions of barter,
and that one product can be exchanged for millions at a time. The cooking-pot
keeps boiling because people keep putting in things as they themselves, and others,
take things out.14
–
6md`UW]b[h\YUWWYbhcbh\YcjYfÃck]b[UVibXUbWYUbXZfYYbUhifY
cZh\YUjU]`UV`YWcbhYbh ;\cg\fYgdcbXYX]ad`]W]h`mhccbYcZh\Yacgh
WcbhYghYXh\YaYg]bAUiggºgYggUm k\]W\WUghYUW\[]ZhUgh\YXY`]VYfUhY
]adcg]h]cbcZUXYVhcbh\YfYWY]jYf ]bghUh]b[\]YfUfW\]Ygk\]W\kYfYei]hY
ZcfY][bhch\YdfUWh]WYcZbYhkcf_YX]bZcfaUh]cbYlW\Ub[Y"
HcXUm k]h\h\Ydcdi`UfYld`cg]cbcZ;bihY``UUbXch\YfdYYf!hc!dYYfÂ`Y!
g\Uf]b[gmghYag h\YgYbch]cbgcZh\Y\][\!hYW\[]ZhYWcbcam\UjYVY[ibhc
ZcfadUfhcZWcaacbgYbgY"=hgYYaghcUXa]hUh`YUghUZYkbYkh\]b[g.h\Uh
h\YWcXYXWfYUh]cbgW]fWi`Uh]b[cbh\Y=bhYfbYhUfYbYjYf¹WcbgiaYXº`]_YU
13 Richard Barbrook, ‘The Hi-Tech
Gift Economy’, in ReadMe, Filtered by
Nettime, New York: Autonomedia,
1999, online at www.firstmonday.dk/
issues/issue3_12/barbrook
358
14 Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, ‘Cooking
Pot Economy’, in ReadMe, op. cit.,
online at www.firstmonday.dk/issues/
issue3 _ 3/ghosh/index.html # SEC5
Brian Holmes The Revenge of the Concept: Artistic Exchanges, Networked Resistance
361
All these phenomena are at the same time juridical, economic, religious, and even
aesthetic and morphological, etc. They are juridical because they concern private and
public law, and a morality that is organised and diffused throughout society; they
are strictly obligatory or merely an occasion for praise and blame; they are political
and domestic at the same time, relating to social classes as well as clans and families.
They are religious in the strict sense, including magic, animism, and a diffused
religious mentality. They are economic. The idea of value, utility, self-interest,
luxury, wealth, the acquisition and accumulation of goods – all these on the one
hand – and on the other, that of consumption, even that of deliberate spending for its
own sake, purely sumptuary: all these phenomena are present everywhere, although
we understand them differently today. Moreover, these institutions have an
important aesthetic aspect... the dances that are carried out in turn, the songs and
processions of every kind, the dramatic performances... everything, food, objects,
and services, even ‘respect’, as the Tlingit say, is a cause of aesthetic emotion. 18
–
H\YfY]gbcbcghU`[]UZcfUdf]a]h]jY`]ZY]bh\YZUWhcZeich]b[AUigg
bcfUbmZUW]`YUXa]fUh]cbZcfh\Y¹fYjc`ih]cbUfmfêteº"H\]b[gUfYaiW\acfY
Wcad`Yl"Cbh\YcbY\UbX h\YWcbhYadcfUfmeiYghZcf¹X]fYWhUWh]cbº Zcf
¹X]fYWhXYacWfUWmº ÂbXgUb]b]h]U`fYU`]gUh]cb]bh\YWc``YWh]jY WccdYfUh]jY
dfcXiWh]cbcZh\YgYdiV`]WYjYbhg k\]W\Vf]b[hc[Yh\YfU``h\Yf][cfcig`m
gYdUfUhYXUgdYWhgcZacXYfbgcW]U``]ZY"=bXYYX h\YjYfmU]acZgiW\YjYbhg
]ghcWf]h]W]gYWYfhU]bZibXUaYbhU`gYdUfUh]cbg `]_Yh\YcbYh\UhUadihUhYg
UbmVUg]WWcbWYfbZcf`]ZYZfcah\Y`UkgcZacbYhUfmUWWiai`Uh]cb"6ihh\Uh
XcYgbºhaYUbh\Uhh\YYjYbh h\YYWghUh]WWcbjYf[YbWY ]gUhchU`gc`ih]cb.
]bghYUX]h]gUXYdUfhifYdc]bhZcfUZfYg\eiYgh]cb]b[cZh\YgcW]U`h]Y Uh
h]aYgk\Yb]hgXYUX`mUgdYWhgVYWcaYj]g]V`Y Ugh\YmUfYhcXUm"H\Y
dfchYghcfgºW`U]a bch^ighhch\YcWWidUh]cbVihhch\YcreationcZdiV`]W
gdUWY k]h\U``h\YWcbÃ]Whg]hVf]b[g]b]hgkU_Y cZZYfggcW]YhmUbcWWUg]cb
hch\YUhf]WU`]gYh\YfYU` ]bcfXYfhcfYd`Umh\YaYUb]b[cZUVghfUWh]cbgh\Uh
UfYbc`cb[YfUXYeiUhYhch\YbYYXgUbXdcgg]V]`]h]YgcZ`]ZY"H\Y¹hchU`gcW]U`
ZUWhºcZh\YWcbhYadcfUfmXYacbghfUh]cb]g Uh]hgVYgh UW\UbWYhcfY`YUfb
UbXfYWfYUhYU`Ub[iU[YZcfdc`]h]WU`XYVUhY k\]W\]gbºh^ighUVcihacbYm
UbXXcYgbºhcb`m\UjY¹¢äº]b]hgjcWUVi`Ufm"5bXh\YbYhkcf_YXdfchYghg
kYUfYgdYU_]b[cZ ]bW`iX]b[h\cgYcZh\YdYUWYacjYaYbh]b&$$' \UjY
dfcXiWYXh\YÂfghW\UbWYghcXch\]gUhh\YgWU`YcZh\Y[`cVU`]gYXYWcbcam
UbXcZ[`cVU`[cjYfbUbWY"
5fh]gh]WdfUWh]WY\UgVYYbcbYcZh\Y_Ymghch\YYaYf[YbWYcZh\YgY
¹[`cVU`gcW]U`ZUWhgºµbch`YUghVYWUigYUfh]gh]WdfUWh]WY\UgU`gcVYYbcbY
cZh\YkUmghc\c`XcZZ[fcidj]c`YbWY hccdYbidUh\YUhf]WU`gdUWYh\Uh
XcYgbºh]aaYX]UhY`mVYWcaYUkUfncbY"H\]g]gcVj]cig`mgcaYh\]b[h\Uh
WcbhYadcfUfmgcW]Yhmf]g_gZcf[Yhh]b[ UbXh\UhdUfh]Wi`Uff]g_]gfYUgcb
18 Marcel Mauss, The Gift:
The Form and Reason for Exchange
in Archaic Societies, London:
df]aUf]`mhc]hgY`Z Ug]bUZUacigd]YWYWcadcgYXcZUW\U]f Ud]WhifYcZ
UW\U]f UbXUX]Wh]cbUfmXYÂb]h]cbcZh\YkcfX¹W\U]fº>cgYd\?cgih\
One and Three Chairs %-*)"GiW\Ukcf_ Wcad`Yh]b[]hgY`Z]bUhUihc`c[mh\Uh
fYei]fYXbchfUbgZcfaUh]jYUWh]j]hmZfcah\YdiV`]W Wci`XYUg]`mVYdfYgYbhYX
k]h\]bh\YYl]gh]b[gmghYa"H\igh\YWcbWYdhiU`YgWUdYUhhYadhcb`m`YX
ZfcaaUf_Yh!cf]YbhYXBYkMcf_hch\YaigYiagcZ9ifcdY h\YbÂbU``m
VUW_hch\YaUf_Yh"=b%-+' GYh\G]Y[Y`UiVgU]X]bUb]bhYfj]Yk.
Conceptual art, more than all previous types of art, questions the fundamental
nature of art. Unhappily, the question is strictly limited to the exclusive domain
of the fine arts. There is still the potential of it authorising an examination of all
that surrounds art, but in reality, Conceptual artists are dedicated only to exploring
avant-garde aesthetic problems. … The economic pattern associated with Conceptual
art is remarkably similar to that of other artistic movements: to purchase a work
cheap and resell it at a high price. In short, speculation.19
–
@iWm@]ddUfX Zcf\YfdUfh kfchY]b%-+'h\Uhh\Y¹[\YhhcaYbhU`]hm
dfYXca]bUbh]bh\YbUffckUbX]bWYghicigUfhkcf`X®k]h\]hgfY`]UbWYcb
UjYfmgaU``[fcidcZXYU`Yfg WifUhcfg YX]hcfgUbXWc``YWhcfgk\cUfYU``
hccZfYeiYbh`mUbXcZhYbib_bck]b[`mVcibXVm]bj]g]V`YUdfcbghf]b[ghc
h\Y·fYU`kcf`Xºg¸dckYfghfiWhifYg®aU_YOgQ]hib`]_Y`mh\Uh7cbWYdhiU`
Ufhk]``VYUbmVYhhYfYei]ddYXhcUZZYWhh\Ykcf`XUbmX]ZZYfYbh`mh\Ub
cfYjYbUgaiW\Ug ]hg`YggYd\YaYfU`WcibhYfdUfhg"º20
–
H\YgYUXa]gg]cbgcZXYZYUhUfYkY``_bckb"21– 6ih]bWYfhU]bfYWYbh
diV`]WUh]cbg Ubch\Yf\]ghcfmcZ7cbWYdhiU`Ufh\UgVYYbWca]b[VUW_hc
`][\h"=h]gU\]ghcfmh\UhibZc`Xg]b@Uh]b5aYf]WU UbXdUfh]Wi`Uf`m]b
5f[Ybh]bU ]bh\YW]h]YgcZ6iYbcg5]fYgUbXFcgUf]c"=hkci`XgYYah\Uh\YfY
]bh\YWcbhYlhcZUbUih\cf]hUf]Ub[cjYfbaYbhUbXibXYfh\YdfYggifYcZ
5aYf]WUbWi`hifU`]adYf]U`]ga 7cbWYdhiU`UfhWci`Xcb`mVYfYWY]jYXµcf
]bjYbhYXµUgUb]bj]hUh]cbhcUWhUbhU[cb]gh]WU``mk]h\]bh\YaUgg!aYX]U
gd\YfY"7YfhU]b5f[Ybh]bYDcdUfh]ghgWcbg]XYfYXh\Uhh\YWcaaYfW]U`bYkg
aYX]UWci`XUWhiU``mVYUddfcdf]UhYXUgUbUfh]gh]WaYX]ia `]_YUWUbjUgcf
U[U``YfmgdUWY"HcXch\]g FcVYfhc>UWcVmUbX9XiUfXc7cghUWfYUhYXUb
Ufh]ÂW]U`\UddYb]b[ cbYh\UhbYjYffYU``m\UddYbYX UbXh\Ymgh]ai`UhYXh\Y
aYX]Uk]h\]bZcfaUh]cbUVcih]h gcUghcUW\]YjYgdYW]ÂWÂWh]cbU`YZZYWhg"22
–
6ihh\]gUhhYadhkUgcb`mUÂfghghYdhckUfXgUZi``mdc`]h]WU`Uddfcdf]Uh]cb
19 Michel Claura and Seth
Siegelaub, ‘L’art conceptuel’, in
A. Alberro and B. Stimson (eds.),
Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology,
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,
1999, pp.289–90.
20 Lucy Lippard, ‘Postface’,
Six Years: The Dematerialization of
the Art Object from 1966 to 1972,
New York: Praeger, 1973, p.264.
364
21 See E. Costa, R. Escari,
R. Jacoby, ‘A Media Art (Manifesto)’,
in Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology,
op. cit., pp.2–3.
22 For the classic example, see
Benjamin Buchloh’s assertion that
Conceptual art failed ‘to liberate
the world from mythical forms of
perception and hierarchical modes
of specialised experience’, and was
Art and Social Change 1989
‘transformed into absolute farce’.
‘Conceptual Art 1962–1969’, October,
Winter 1990, p.143.
cZh\YWcaaib]WUh]cbgaYX]UVmUfh]ghg"H\YacghW\UfUWhYf]gh]Wdfc^YWhkUg
Tucumán Arde cf¹HiWiayb]g6ifb]b[º fYU`]gYX]b%-*,"23
– H\Ya]`]hUfm
[cjYfbaYbhkUgUhhYadh]b[hc¹acXYfb]gYºh\Ygi[Uf!WUbY]bXighfm]bh\Y
dfcj]bWYcZHiWiayb k]h\Ug\]ZhcZgWU`YhckUfX`Uf[YfZUWhcf]YgibXYfh\Y
Wcbhfc`cZ`cWU`c`][UfW\gUbXZcfY][bWUd]hU`/Uhh\YgUaYh]aY h\YcZÂW]U`
aYX]UdU]bhYXUb]Xm``]Wd]WhifYcZUfY[]cbk\]W\]bfYU`]hmkUgkfUW_YXVm
]adcjYf]g\aYbhUbX]bhYbgY`UVcifghfi[[`Yg"GcU[fcidcZgcaY'$Ufh]ghg
UbXgcW]c`]c[]ghgZfca6iYbcg5]fYgUbXFcgUf]cVY[UbfYgYUfW\]b[h\Y
gcW]U`UbXYWcbca]WWcbX]h]cbg]bh\Ydfcj]bWY WUffm]b[cihUbUbU`mg]g
cZU``h\YaUgg!aYX]UWcjYfU[YcZh\YfY[]cb UbX[c]b[cihh\YagY`jYg
hc[Uh\YfÂfgh!\UbX]bZcfaUh]cbUbXhcXcWiaYbhh\Yg]hiUh]cbig]b[
d\chc[fUd\mUbXÂ`a"H\Ymh\YbghU[YXUbYl\]V]h]cbh\UhkUgYld`]W]h`m
XYg][bYXhcZYYXh\Y]fkcf_VUW_]bhch\YbUh]cbU`XYVUhY gcUghcWcibhYf
h\YaYX]Ud]WhifY"MYhh\Ydfc^YWh U`h\ci[\]hX]Xbchg\mUkUmZfca
UXjYfh]g]b[hYW\b]eiYg Wci`XbchVYfYXiWYXhcWcibhYf!dfcdU[UbXU"
5g5bXfYU;]ibhUkf]hYg.
In many of its characteristic traits – such as the exploration of the interaction
between languages, the centrality of the activity required from the spectator,
the unfinished character, the importance of the documentation, the dissolution
of the idea of the author, and the questioning of the art system and the ideas
that legitimate it – HiWiayb5fXY maintains a relation with the repertory
of Conceptual art. But not with the tautological and self-referential form of
Conceptualism, in which, from a certain viewpoint, one finds a reconfirmation of
the modernist paradigm. Language does not refer back to language, to the specificity
of the artistic fact; instead, the contextual relations are so strong that in this case
that reality ceases being understood as a space of reflection and comes to be conceived
as a possible field of action oriented toward the transformation of society.24
–
Tucumán Arde]gYlhfYaY`m]bhYfYgh]b[hcWcbg]XYfZfcah\YWcbhYadcfUfm
j]Ykdc]bhcZhUWh]WU`aYX]UdfUWh]WY k\]W\]baUbmfYgdYWhg\UgVYYb
cbY`cb[YZZcfhhcfYgYUfW\ YldcgY UbX[cVYmcbXh\Y]Xm``]Wd]WhifYcZ
[`cVU`]gUh]cbVY]b[dU]bhYXVmh\YWcfdcfUhYaYX]U"25
– 6ihhcibXYfghUbXh\Y
aU^cfX]ZZYfYbWYgZfcahcXUmºgg]hiUh]cb cbYaighfYU`]gYh\UhTucumán Arde
kUgXcbYk]h\h\YgiddcfhcZh\Y5f[Ybh]bY7;H h\Uh]g UfUX]WU``UVcif
ib]cb UbXh\YYl\]V]h]cbkUgg\ckb]bUib]cb\U``"=bch\YfkcfXg hc
23 A description of Tucumán Arde
(including the relation to Jacoby’s
work) can be found in Marí Carmen
Ramírez, ‘Thriving on Adversity:
Conceptualism in Latin America,
1960–1980’, in Global Conceptualism:
Points of Origin, 1950s–1980s (exh.
cat.), Queens Museum of Art, 1999,
pp.66–67. Also see M.T. Gramuglio
and N. Rosa, ‘Tucumán Burns’, in
Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology,
op. cit., pp.76–79.
24 Andrea Giunta, Vanguardia,
internacionalismo y política: arte
argentino en los años sesenta,
Buenos Aires: Paidós, 2001.
25 See D. Garcia and G. Lovink,
‘The ABC of Tactical Media’, www.
waag.org/tmn/abc.html. Also see the
wide variety of projects that have
been discussed in the ‘Next 5
Minutes’ festivals, www.n5m.org.
Today, http://indymedia.org is
considered (by some) as the broadest
expression of tactical media.
Brian Holmes The Revenge of the Concept: Artistic Exchanges, Networked Resistance
London, online at www.eco-action.org/
dod/no8/j18.html
Art and Social Change 1989
27 See www.corporatewatch.org.
uk/magazine/issue8/cw8glob6.html
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UWh]cb X]ghf]VihYXk]XY`mh\fci[\h\Y=bhYfbYh dih]h`]_Yh\]g.
The proposal is to encourage as many movements and groups as possible to organise
their own autonomous protests or actions, on the same day ( June 18th), in the same
geographical locations ( financial/corporate/ banking/business districts) around the
world. Events could take place at relevant sites, eg. multinational company offices,
local banks, stock exchanges. Each event would be organised autonomously and
coordinated in each city or financial district by a variety of movements and groups.
It is hoped that a whole range of different groups will take part, including workers,
peasants, indigenous peoples, women, students, the landless, environmentalists,
unwaged/unemployed and others. ... everyone who recognises that the global
capitalist system, based on the exploitation of people and the planet for the profit
of a few, is at the root of our social and ecological troubles.27
–
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@cbXcb=bhYfbUh]cbU`:]bUbW]U`:ihifYgUbXCdh]cbg9lW\Ub[Y k\]W\kUg
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ghfi[[`Y WcbZfcbh]b[ÂbUbW]U`UVghfUWh]cbgk\]W\Wci`XVYibXYfghccXVm
h\YdUfh]W]dUbhgh\fci[\h\Y]aaYX]UhYYldYf]YbWYcZh\YghcbY!UbX![`Ugg
UfW\]hYWhifY k\]`Yh\Yg][b]ÂWUbWYcZYUW\cZh\Y]fUWhgkUgai`h]d`]YXVm
h\Y_bck`YX[Yh\Uhch\Yf g]a]`UfYjYbhgkYfYcWWiff]b[U``cjYfh\Yd`UbYh"
GdcbhUbYcig]bj]hUh]cbgZcfdUgg]b[hfUXYfghcWcaY^c]bh\YdUfhmkYfY
WcaV]bYXk]h\giXXYbUhhUW_gcbdf]jUhYdfcdYfhm [YbYfUh]b[Ub
ibYldYWhYX h\fYUhYb]b[ gmadUh\Yh]WUbX]aaYbgY`mWcbÂXYbh]aU[YcZ
fYjc`hµUkUmhcÂbU``mghUfhUbgkYf]b[h\YXYWUXYg!c`Xd`YUgZcf\Y`dZfca
cddfYggYXdYcd`Yg]bh\YGcih\ k\]`YU`gcfYgdcbX]b[hch\YibVYUfUV`Y
Brian Holmes The Revenge of the Concept: Artistic Exchanges, Networked Resistance
Stephan Dillemuth, Anthony Davies and Jakob Jakobsen There is no alternative: THE FUTURE IS SELF-ORGANISED
381
PART V
COMMISSIONED
ESSAYS
THE MANY AND S OF
ART AND REVOLUTION
G E R A LD R AU N IG
AND is neither one thing nor the other, it’s always in-between, between two things;
it’s the borderline, there’s always a border, a line of flight or flow, only we don’t see
it, because it’s the least perceptible of things. And yet it’s along this line of flight that
things come to pass, becomings evolve, revolutions take shape.1–
BchUfhis® bchfYjc`ih]cbis""" VihfUh\YfUfhand® fYjc`ih]cband®"=h]g
bchh\YYggYbWYcZUbYjYbh Ug]b[i`Uf]hmcfUWcbWYdhh\Uh]gfY`YjUbh Vih
fUh\Yfh\YVYWca]b[g h\YZcfWYgh\UhdYfaYUhYh\Ya h\YWcbWUhYbUh]cb
k]h\ch\YfYjYbhg g]b[i`Uf]h]Yg WcbWYdhg"H\YWcb^ibWh]cb¹UbXº]bX]WUhYg
h\YgYWcbWUhYbUh]cbg UbX]bhifb]hZc`Xg]hgY`Z X]ZZYfYbh]UhYg]hgY`Z]bhcU
ai`h]hiXYcZZcfagUbXacXYgcZWcbWUhYbUh]cb"H\YgYUfYai`h]hiXYgh\Uh
bYjYfaU_YidUhchU`]hm dUfhgh\UhbYjYfkYfYUbXbYjYfVYWcaYUk\c`Y.
8Y`YinYUbX;iUhhUf]WU``h\YgYUffUb[YaYbhgaUW\]bYg"H\YgYUfYbch
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]XYbh]h]YgVihfUh\YfU[YbhgcZX]ZZYfYbWY Wcaaib]WUh]b[jYggY`g cdYb
ghfYUa!`]_YUffUb[YaYbhg"AUW\]bYghYbXhcY`iXYghfUh]ÂWUh]cb
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[fUgdYXfYjc`ih]cbUgUbibWcad`YhYXUbXibWcad`YhUV`Yac`YWi`Uf
1 G. Deleuze, ‘Three Questions
on Six Times Two’, Negotiations,
1972–90 (trans. Martin Joughin),
k\]W\WcbXiWhYXUbYkdYfZcfaUh]jYdfUWh]WYcZUddfcdf]Uh]cbk]h\
Ufh]gh]WaYUbg"6–
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mcaUb[cYgdYW]U``m`]_Yghc`]VYfUhYdfcXiWhg]adf]gcbYXVm
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mcaUb[cºgUfh]gh]WdfUWh]WYUgUaUW\]bY WUffm]b[]hcih]bhch\Ykcf`X"7–
mcaUb[cgYa]bUfgUfY`]ZYghm`Ykcf_g\cdgcbW]j]`X]gcVYX]YbWYUbXcZZYf
gdYW]ÂW]bghfiWh]cbgZcfYjUX]b[hYW\bc`c[]WU`UbXWcaaib]WUh]jYgYWif]hm
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6 Although the group derived from
various fields of the radical left, unlike
radical anarchism it has not principally
rejected art institutions, but rather
has a more parasitic relationship to
392
Art and Social Change
institutions. Hence the practice of
YOMANGO has also been developed,
among other contexts, within the
framework of the workshop ‘Las
Agencias’ at the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Barcelona
( MACBA ).
7 See www.yomango.net
Local Space’, http://eipcp.net/
transversal/0902/hamm/en
the Streets! Global Protests and
Gerald Raunig The Many ANDs of Art and Revolution
393
UXVigh]b[ Wi`hifY^Uaa]b[UbXWcbhYadcfUfmdc`]h]WU`dfcdU[UbXU
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AND is of course diversity, multiplicity, the destruction of identities.O"""QBut
diversity and multiplicity are nothing to do with aesthetic wholes """or dialectical
schemas""""When Godard says everything has two parts, that in a day there’s
morning UbX evening, he’s not saying it’s one or the other, or that one becomes the
other, becomes two. Because multiplicity is never in the terms, however many, nor
in all the terms together, the whole. Multiplicity is precisely in the ‘and’, which is
different in nature from elementary components and collections of them"10
–
10 Gilles Deleuze, ‘Three
Questions on Six Times Two’,
Negotiations, op. cit., p.44.
394
Art and Social Change
REBUILDING THE ART
OF THE PEOPLE
JO H N M I LN E R
Walter Crane
To the Memory
of the Paris
Commune, 1871
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=bUWcadUfUV`Y]aU[YaUXY]b%,+- The Body
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395
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]bkUffcgY\][\YffcibX\Yf"
=bbYihfU`Gk]hnYf`UbXdfchYghU[U]bghkUfkUgdcgg]V`YUbXUdUW]ÂghZifm
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W`YUfUbXXf]jYbVmXYgdU]f"5g8UXUdcYhHf]ghUbHnUfUXYW`UfYX.
There is a great negative work of destruction to be accomplished. We must sweep and
clean. Affirm the cleanliness of the individual after the state of madness, aggressive
and complete madness of a world abandoned to the hands of bandits, who rend
one another and destroy the centuries.3–
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2 Hugo Ball, ‘Dada Fragments
1916–17’, Flucht auf der Zeit (Flight
from Time), Munich/Leipzig, 1927;
cited in Charles Harrison and Paul
Wood, Art in Theory 1900–2000,
Oxford: Blackwell, 1992, p.251.
3 Tristan Tzara, ‘Dada Manifesto’,
read in Zurich 23 March 1918 and
published in Dada, no.3, 1918; cited in
C. Harrison and P. Wood, Art in
Theory 1900–2000, op. cit., p.256.
4 Richard Huelsenbeck and Raoul
Hausmann ‘What is Dada and What
Does it Want in Germany’ Dada, no.1,
1919. See C. Harrison and P. Wood,
Art in Theory 1900–2000, op. cit.,
p.259–60.
The function of the radical is sacrificial. The radical proposes ideas that cause
destruction and later become orthodoxies.1–
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1 E.L. Doctorow quoted in L.
Lippard, ‘Notes on the Independence
Movement’, in Janet Kardon, (ed.),
1967: At the Crossroads, Philadelphia:
Institute of Contemporary Art, 1987.
2 For me, the most thorough book
on art in 1960s New York is by an
Englishman; see Francis Frascina, Art,
408
Art and Social Change
Politics and Dissent: Aspects of the Art
Left in Sixties America, Manchester
University Press, 1999. It provides a
detailed and analytic account of most
of the events mentioned here. See
also L. Lippard, A Different War:
Vietnam in Art, Seattle: Real Comet
Press, 1990; and for the broadest
picture, Julie Ault, Alternative Art,
New York, 1965–1985, Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
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3 On the topic of communitybased arts and cultural democracy,
see Eva Cockcroft, John Weber and
James Cockcroft, Toward a People’s
Art: The Contemporary Mural
Movement, New York: E.P. Dutton,
1977; Don Adams and Arlene
Goldbard, Crossroads: Reflections on
the Politics of Culture, Talmage, CA:
DNA Press, 1990; Suzanne Lacy (ed.),
Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public
Art, Seattle: Bay Press, 1995; Douglas
Kahn and Diane Neumaier (eds.),
Cultures in Contention, Seattle: Real
Comet Press, 1985; Mark O’Brien and
Craig Little (eds.), Reimaging America:
The Arts of Social Change, Philadelphia:
New Society Publishers, 1990; and
Linda Frye Burnham and Steven
Durland (eds.), The Citizen Artist: 20
Years of Art in the Public Arena,
Gardner NY: The Critical Press, 1998.
4 See J. Kardon (ed.), op. cit. (with
essays by Hal Foster, Lucy R. Lippard,
Barbara Rose, Janet Kardon and Irving
Sandler).
5 Amy Adler, ‘Age of Innocence’,
frieze, January 1996, no.34; quoted by
F. Frascina, p.219.
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6 See James Davison Hunter,
Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define
America, New York: Basic Books,
1992.
7 See http://arts.guardian.co.uk/
war/story/0,,921514,00.html
8 See David Craven, Poetics and
Politics in the Art of Rudolf Baranik,
Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities
Press, 1997.
9 The Watts Tower is a collection
of 17 interconnected structures built
by construction worker Rodia over a
period of 33 years.
10 The Peace Tower was a 58-foot
steel tetrahedron that served as a
platform for '2' × 2" – works by 418
artists including Judd, Reinhardt,
Frank Stella, Eva Hesse, Nancy Spero
and others from all over the world.
11 See GAAG, GAAG : The Guerrilla Art
Action Group 1969–1976: A Selection,
New York: Printed Matter, 1978.
12 Leon Golub, ‘The Artist as Angry
Artists: The Obsession with Napalm’,
Arts Magazine, April 1967, pp.48–49.
After being shown at Columbia
University, the donated art was
burned in order to keep it off the
market. The male pronoun for artist
in Golub’s article was surely disputed
by his wife, artist Nancy Spero, who –
amongst others in Artists and
Writers Protest, including May
Stevens – was a force to be reckoned
with in the antiwar movement; Spero
was a co-founder of WAR , the first
women’s art group in New York.
Three years later, Ron Wolin and
I organised Collage of Indignation II,
a series of individual poster designs
at the New York Cultural Center in
midtown Manhattan (and elsewhere),
with the Utopian goal of printing all
contributions as posters. Only Robert
Rauschenberg’s was eventually
produced.
13 The influence of the Beats in
the 1950s has often been noted with
regard to the use of drugs in the 60s;
they were adamantly indifferent to
political action, though eventually
Allen Ginsberg did not follow
this path.
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14 See L. Lippard, ‘The Art
Workers Coalition: Not a History’,
Studio International, Nov 1970,
pp.171–74.
412
Art and Social Change
15 Hilton Kramer quoted in L.
Lippard, ‘Notes on the Independence
Movement’, op. cit., p.26. The AWC
published all testimonies in Open
Hearings, a 1969 booklet, followed by
a second volume of Documents, 1971.
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16 See Tradition and Conflict: Images
of a Turbulent Decade: 1963–1973,
New York: The Studio Museum
in Harlem, 1985.
17 See Michele Wallace,
Black Macho and the Myth of the
Superwoman, New York: Verso, 1990.
18 See A Documentary Herstory of
Women Artists in Revolution, New
York: WAR, 1971; a Xerox book
reissued by the Women’s Interart
Center, 1973; and L. Lippard, From
the Center: Feminist Essays on Women’s
Art, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1983.
Lucy R. Lippard Time Capsule
413
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19 See L. Lippard, ‘Escape
Attempts’, in Anne Goldstein and
Anne Rorimer (eds.), Reconsidering the
Object of Art: 1965–1975, Los Angeles:
Museum of Contemporary Art, 1996,
pp.16–39.
20 See Max Kozloff, ‘American
Painting During the Cold War’,
Artforum, Sept 1970; and Eva
Cockcroft, ‘Abstract Expressionism,
414
Art and Social Change
Weapon of the Cold War’, Artforum,
June 1974.
21 Deborah Wye’s Committed to
Print (drawn from the PAD/D Archive),
1988 is the only other contender, but
it was smaller and sponsored by the
less-powerful Print Department.
22 F. Frascina, Art, Politics and
Dissent, op. cit., pp.148 and 227.
23 See L. Lippard, Six Years:
The Dematerialization of the Art Object
from 1966 to 1972, New York: Praeger,
1973; reprinted by the University of
California Press in 1997; translated
into Spanish by Akal, Madrid, 2004.
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– BchYjYfmcbYZY`hh\UhkUm"AUbmmcib[YfUfh]ghg
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X]fYWhYXfYg]ghUbWYº"25
– 5b]bX]j]XiU`Ufh]ghµbcaUhhYf\ckaiW\cZU
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UbX]adUWh]bbiaVYfg UbXaiW\cZh\Ykcf_h\YmXcVYgh]gj]fhiU``m
]bj]g]V`YUg¹Ufhº"26
–
24 Robert Smithson in ‘The Artist
and Politics: A Symposium’, Artforum,
September 1970, p.39. This
‘symposium’ in print contains a
number of fascinating statements
by artists on political action.
25 Martha Rosler (untitled
manuscript) in forthcoming history
of Creative Time.
26 Steve Kurtz, a member of
Critical Art Ensemble, a collective
that has specialised in ‘tactical media’
was subpoenaed by the United States
Attorney General under the 2001
Patriot Act for possessing ‘biological
agents’ (laboratory equipment
intended for an art project called Free
Range Grain for the ‘Interventionists’
exhibition at Mass MoCA . Though he
was cleared of ‘bioterrorism’ Kurtz
and another professor are being
charged and tried with alleged mail
and wire fraud. The twenty-first
century has spawned many art
collectives internationally, the best
known of which is probably Germany’s
Wochenklausur. Younger artists are
gathering, more or less anonymously,
often to make ‘utilitarian art’ about
solving urban and even global
problems, among them the Yes Men,
SubRosa, Free Soil and Spurse.
Lucy R. Lippard Time Capsule
415
Artworkers
Coalition Q. And
babies? A. And
babies., 1970
kUfkUgXYfU]`YXVmaU^cfUfh!kcf`XÂ[ifYg ]bW`iX]b[5`ZfYX6Uff"28
–
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UkW5Wh]cb7caa]hhYYVfc_Y]bhcUhfighYYgºX]bbYfdUfhmhU_]b[d`UWY
]bAYhfcdc`]hUbAigYia[U``Yf]YgW`cgYXhch\YdiV`]WUbX ]bUbad hoc
[YghifY cbYUfh]ghgWUhhYfYXWcW_fcUW\Ygcbh\YhUV`Y¹hc_YYd<Uf`Ya
cbmcifa]bXº"
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@YZhºghUWh]WgkYfYW`YUf`mUh\fYUhhch\YC`X@YZh Ug]hiUh]cbbch]adfcjYXVm
h\YUkWºgcddcg]h]cbhcAcA5ºg¹:]fgh;YbYfUh]cbºg\ck/h\YYl\]V]h]cbkUg
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kcaYbºgUfhacjYaYbhVY[Ub]bYUfbYgh"29
– H\Y7cU`]h]cbºg`UghaU^cfUWh]cb
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27 See L. Lippard, ‘The Geography
of Street Time: A Survey of
Streetworks Downtown’, in Rene
Block, SoHo: Downtown Manhattan,
Berlin: Akademie der Kunste/Berliner
Festwochen, 1976, pp.180–210.
28 The long stories of MoMA’s
disengagement from an unlikely
collaboration with the AWC on the
My Lai poster, and the machinations
involved with the letter to Picasso are
described in detail by Frascina, who
notes that the FBI had a huge file on
Picasso. See F. Frascina, Art, Politics and
Dissent, op. cit., pp.161–62, 165–174.
29 WEB , or West-East Bag, founded
in April 1971, was a national network
of women’s slide registries and
centres for local organisations.
Lucy R. Lippard Time Capsule
417
Guerrilla Girls
Do Women Have
to be Naked to get
into the Met.
Museum?, 1989
cbh\Y@ckYf9UghG]XY UbX]fcb]WU``mYbXYXid]bh\YAigYiacZAcXYfb
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acjYaYbhcbh\Y@ckYf9UghG]XY"30
–
;Ybhf]ÂWUh]cbUbX\caY`YggbYggkYfYUacb[h\YifVUb]ggiYgh\UhXfYk
Ufh]ghghcUWh]bh\YdccfbY][\Vcif\ccXgk\YfYh\Ym`]jYX"H\YgY[fcidg
WfYUhYXUfhjYbiYgfUh\Yfh\Ubdc`]h]WU`UWh]cbg/h\Y]fibWcbjYbh]cbU`
Yl\]V]h]cbgkYfYgcW]U`ghUhYaYbhgUbXUfhkcf_g]bh\YagY`jYgµWcbhYbh!
ZcWigYX hYadcfUfm [f]hhmUbX[fib[m`]_Yh\YDib_#BYkKUjYW`iVWi`hifY
h\Uhdfcj]XYXh\Y]fXca]bUbhWcbhYlh"=Z¹f][]Xº@YZhdc`]h]WgUbXZYa]b]gh
¹f][\hYcigbYggºhifbYXgcaYcZh\Ymcib[YfUfh]ghgcZZ UbXh\Y]f¹fYhfcW\]Wº
UbX¹dc`]h]WU``m]bWcffYWhº]aU[YggcaYh]aYghifbYXcZZh\Yc`X#bYk@YZh]b
hifb h\Y]fUYgh\Yh]Wj]hU`]hmaUXYidZcfh\YX]ZZYfYbWYg"8if]b[h\Y%-,*
5fh]ghg7U``5[U]bghig=bhYfjYbh]cb]b7YbhfU`5aYf]WU UbUh]cbU`Ufhg
WUadU][b h\YgY¹Zf]b[YºY`YaYbhg U`cb[k]h\dUX#X ^c]bYXh\YaU]b!
ghfYUa]bgcaY'$Yl\]V]h]cbg]bBYkMcf_7]hmU`cbY"
H\Yacghj]g]V`YUWh]j]gh[fcidXif]b[h\Y7i`hifYKUfgcZh\Y`UhY,$g
kUgUWhidU]Xg7cU`]h]cbhcIb`YUg\DckYf k]h\]hgd]b_!UbX!V`UW_
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g\ckYXk\YbZUWYXk]h\UfhUVcihVcXm XYg]fYUbXgYliU`]XYbh]hm"31– =b%-,-
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cZaYX]UWf]h]W]ga U`gcUdfcXiWhcZh\Y%-*$g k\Yb¹H\YK\c`YKcf`X
=gKUhW\]b[ºkUgUdcdi`Ufg`c[Ub"G]bWYh\Yb ]h\UgVYWcaY\UfXYfUbX
\UfXYfZcfUfh]ghghcWcadYhYk]h\cfYjYbgUh]f]gYh\Y]bUb]h]YgcZ
WcaaYfW]U`aYX]U"
30 See L. Lippard, ‘Trojan Horses:
Activist Art and Power’, in Brian
Wallis and Marcia Tucker (eds.),
Art After Modernism: Rethinking
Representation, New York: New
Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984,
pp.340–358; and Nina Felshin (ed.),
But Is It Art? The Spirit of Art Activism,
Seattle: Bay Press, 1995.
31 See Douglas Crimp and Adam
Rolston, AIDSDEMOGRAPHICS , Seattle:
Bay Press, 1990. This puritanism
extended to political opinion, as
shown when NEA grants to the
publications PAD/D and Heresies were
vetoed in 1983 (I happened to have
co-founded both groups). See
L. Lippard, Get the Message? A Decade
of Art for Social Change, New York:
E.P. Dutton, 1984, especially ‘The
Dilemma’, ‘Sweeping Exchanges’,
and ‘Hot Potatoes’.
Lucy R. Lippard Time Capsule
419
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– H\]gghUhYaYbh
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VYmcbXh\YfYUW\cZj]fhiU``mU``j]giU`Ufhkcf_Yfg"
Speaking the truth to power is no Panglossian idealism: it is carefully weighing
the alternatives, picking the right one, and then intelligently representing it where
it can do the most good and cause the right change"33
–
9XkUfXGU]X
Information presented at the right time and in the right places can potentially
be very powerful. It can affect the general social fabric"34
–
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32 Jonathan Schell, ‘Too Late for
Empire’, The Nation, 14 August, 2006.
33 Edward Said, Representations of
the Intellectual, New York: Vintage,
1996, p.102.
420
Art and Social Change
34 Hans Haacke in Jeanne Siegel,
‘An Interview with Hans Haacke’,
Arts Magazine, vol.45 no.7, May 1971.
35 A video called Disarming Images,
the product of an artists group originally
affiliated with Not in Our Name is
a compendium of antiwar art that has
been shown at Camp Casey, at the gates
of Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch and has
travelled the country. Our Grief is not a
Cry for War was one of the group’s first
actions after September 11th.
36 Separate interviews with
the artists in Nato Thompson
and Greg Sholette (eds.),
The Interventionists, North Adams,
Mass.: Massachusetts
Museum of Contemporary
Art, 2004.
Lucy R. Lippard Time Capsule
421
SECUL AR ARTIST,
CITIZEN ARTIST
G E E TA K A P U R
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1 Reference here is to Edward
Said’s famous ‘Introduction: Secular
Criticism’, in his The World, The Text
and the Critic, London: Vintage, 1991;
422
Art and Social Change
and to his later monograph,
Representations of the Intellectual
(The 1993 Reith Lectures), London:
Vintage, 1994.
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=Zk\UhX]gh]b[i]g\Ygdc`]h]WU`ZfcaW]j]`gcW]Yhm]gh\Uhh\YX]gWcifgY
cZW]h]nYbgºf][\hgaighhfUbg`UhY]bhcUdfYYadh]jYWcaa]haYbhhcfUX]WU`
W\Ub[Y kYbYYXhcfYcdYbUZUa]`]Uf ]bhYbgY`mdc`Ya]WU`eiYgh]cb.does
the artist-as-citizen still have a role to play in translating political projects into
a vanguard aesthetic?
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2 Partha Chatterjee, ‘Beyond
the Nation? Or Within?’, Carolyn
M. Elliott (ed.), Civil Society and
Democracy: A Reader, Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 2003.
3 This includes, above all, the mass
movement led during the 1940s by Dr.
B.R. Ambedkar and his followers until
the present day to claim an equitable
space for the dalits in a modern Indian
state; armed struggles by the Maoists/
Naxalites to claim land rights for
displaced peasants from the ‘landlord-capitalist’ state; insurgencies
by neglected/alienated ‘nationalities’
and other minorities seeking
autonomy from the space of the
nation-state; forcible negotiations
by disenfranchised labour and urban
‘slum’ dwellers to secure their living
rights.
4 See Sudhi Pradhan (ed.), Marxist
Cultural Movement in India: Chronicles
and Documents Vol.III 1943–64,
Calcutta: Mrs Pradhan (publisher),
Pustak Bipani (distributor), 1985. See
also Malini Bhattacharya, ‘The IPTA in
Bengal’, Journal of Arts and Ideas, no.2,
January–March 1983; and Rustom
Bharucha, Rehearsals for Revolution:
Political Theatre in Bengal, Calcutta:
Seagull, 1983.
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VYYbcdYbYXcihZcfWf]h]WU`Wcbg]XYfUh]cb"Thus a peculiar coincidence occurs
between the state’s constitutional promise of democratic secularism and the secularising
logic of aesthetic modernism.
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5 For example, two major postindependence artists – Maqbool Fida
Husain and K.G. Subramanyan –
can be said to have forged a painting
vocabulary corresponding to what
the Indian state, the intelligentsia and
an enlightened public would designate
as national, modern, secular
consciousness.
6 As an example I refer to the
painter Francis Newton Souza (1924–
2002), Goan-Catholic turned
modernist, mysogynist, universal
antagonist – an enfant terrible of Indian
art; and to Bhupen Khakhar (1934–
2003), master subversionist who
produced a remarkably unique
iconography for gay sexuality. I also
refer to feminist articulations by
artists using a wide range of materials
and strategies: for example, painters
Arpita Singh and Nilima Sheikh;
installation/video artists and
photographers Nalini Malani,
Rummana Hussain, Navjot Altaf,
Sheela Gowda, Pushpamala N.,
Dayanita Singh, Anita Dube, Sheba
Chhachhi, Sonia Khurana, Tejal Shah
and Shilpa Gupta. Together this
output marks, quite literally, the
full stretch of vanguard art practice
in India.
Geeta Kapur Secular Artist, Citizen Artist
425
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fYbXYf]b[cZh\Ydc`]h]WU`" 7–
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Zcfh\f][\h`mUbhU[cb]gh]Wfc`Y":cfY[fcibX]b[h\Y]fj]YkZfcaUsubaltern
`cWig dalit kf]hYfgh\Y`ckYgh#¹ibhciW\UV`YºaYaVYfgcZh\Y<]bXiWUghY
\]YfUfW\mk\c\UjYUggiaYXh\YhYfadalit,h\YcddfYggYX UgUg][bcZh\Y]f
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fi`]b[W`UggUbXWUghY h\Y\Y[YacbmcZh\YghUhY UbXh\YjYfm`Y[]h]aUWm
cZh\YbUh]cbU`"H\YfY]gU[YbYf]WU``mX]ZZYfYbhdalit `]hYfUhifYYgdYW]U``m]b
7 I refer here to India’s lofty
tradition of auteur-based, modernist
and avant-garde cinema and, when we
talk of testing the limits of sovereignsubjectivity, to filmmakers as diverse
as Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Kumar
Shahani, Mani Kaul, Mrinal Sen and
Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
8 During the Indian Emergency and
later, between 1992–2004, when antisecular/proto-fascist forces
426
Art and Social Change
engineered riots and virtual genocide
of the minorities in different parts
of India, visual artists were able to
articulate the rupture in the
democratic equation between the
state and the polity by changing the
course of what until then was a
largely classical/modernist art scene.
Artists – foremost among them Vivan
Sundaram, Nalini Malani, Rummana
Hussain and Navjot Altaf, followed by
younger artists, especially the
Mumbai-based Open Circle –
incorporated documentary
photography and switched over
to sculptural and video installations,
as well as public art interventions. By
boldly changing their language-in-use,
they also changed the subject-position
of the artist, making it more unstable,
more volatile and more radical.
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k]h\giVU`hYfbacjYaYbhgUbXghfYb[h\YbYXh\YgiV^YWh]j]h]YgdfcXiWYX
h\YfY]b"H\YWcffYgdcbX]b[[YbfY]gY]h\YfYldfYgg]cb]ghcfXcWiaYbhUfm UbX
h\ci[\YUW\\UgUjYfmX]ZZYfYbh[YbYU`c[m h\Ymdf]j]`Y[YUf\Yhcf]WU`ghm`YcZ
UXXfYgg]bhYbXYXhcYldcgYh\Yibhfih\cZh\YghUhYºgXYacWfUh]WW`U]ag"
9 The Radical Painters’ and
Sculptors’ Association (1987–89) was
led by the dynamic K.P. Krishnakumar
until his suicide in 1989. This brought
a tragic closure to the youthful
movement that questioned and
refused all before them – in art and
politics alike. See Anita Dube,
Questions and Dialogue (exh. cat.),
Baroda: The Radical Painters’ and
Sculptors’ Association, 1987, and
Shivaji Panikkar, ‘Indian Radical
painters and Sculptors: Crisis of
Political Art in Contemporary India’,
in Ratan Parimoo (ed.), Creative Arts
in Modern India: Essays in Comparative
Criticism Vol.II, Delhi: Books and
Books, 1995. A strongly polemical
handling of the issues is to be found
in Ashish Rajadhyaksha, ‘The Last
Decade’, in Gulammohammed Sheikh
(ed.), Contemporary Art in Baroda,
Delhi: Tulika, 1997.
10 Safdar Hashmi’s street-theatre
group, Jana Natya Manch (Peoples’
Theatre Platform), run by his
comrade-wife Moloyshree Hashmi
and the group’s ideologue, Sudhanva
428
Art and Social Change
Deshande, sees itself inheriting some
of its activist energies from IPTA ; it
also acts as a cultural front of the CPI
(M) . See, among their other
publications, a special issue of their
journal: Nukkad Janam Samvad on
‘People’s Art in the Twentieth
Century: Theory and Practice’, vol.ii/
iii, nos. 4–8 (Delhi: Jana Natya
Manch), July 1999–September 2000.
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UbXdfchYghaYYh]b[g UbXUfh]gh!XYg][bYXdcghYfgUgkY``Ug¹X]fYWhUWh]cbº
UhghfYYh`YjY`µGU\aUhWUbVYgU]Xhc\UjYdfcdcgYXUrhetorical form of
public culture.
Sahmat’s emergence in 1989 resulted in, numerically speaking, extraordinary
participation by the entire breadth of India’s artists, from academy-style painter
to classical singer, from alternative filmmaker to community theatre enthusiast,
from Communist Party griot to small-town photo-journalist. Sahmat’s interventions
quickly laid out a new mode of artistic operation in the Indian context, bringing
on board waves of voluntary conscripts from the art world, the intelligentsia and
‘cultural workers’ who embraced Sahmat as a national platform for anti-state
and progressive dissent. By the time of its ‘Anhad Garje’OaYUb]b[¹ibVcfb
VcibX`Ygg fU[]b[gcibXºQ®campaign of 1993 – its quickfire response to
the Babri Masjid demolition, when all other elements of civil society and the state
seemed paralysed – Sahmat was routinely pulling off tremendous logistical feats
on a national scale, straddling events in several different cities (up to 30 at a time)
with input and involvement from hundreds, even thousands, of artists. From certain
Geeta Kapur Secular Artist, Citizen Artist
429
standpoints, this made Sahmat into the largest-ever voluntary collective
of artists coming together to share a single political platform.11–
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-'"=b%--%GU\aUhfYgdcbXYXk]h\Uai`h]d`Y!Ufhgdfc^YWhArtists Against
Communalism k\]W\Vfci[\hhc[Yh\Yfaig]WU`dYfZcfaUbWYg `YWhifYg Â`ag
UbXghfYYhh\YUhfY"H\]ghfUjY``]b[dfc^YWhkUgghU[YX]bgYjYfU`W]h]Yg"12
– 5ZhYf
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X]ghf]VihYX&$ $$$dfchYghdcghYfgUWfcggh\YWcibhfm"Cb%>UbiUfm%--'
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fUnYXhch\Y[fcibX" Anhad GarjehifbYXh\YgmbWfYh]W sufi-bhakti hfUX]h]cbg
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11 Arindam Dutta, ‘ SAHMAT, 1989–
2004: Liberal Art Practice against the
Liberalised Public Sphere’, Cultural
Dynamics, London, Thousand Oaks,
CA and New Delhi: SAGE Publications,
2005, p.199. There are scores of very
important publications (and an
occasional newsletter) produced
by Sahmat that spell out its activities,
its ideology and its battles.
12 The term ‘communalism’ has a
430
Art and Social Change
negative meaning in Indian usage; the
descriptive term – communal – is
turned to mean religious and ethnic
sectarianism, and those hostile forms
of identity politics that generate
inter-community violence.
13 The mystical strains in Islamic
and Hindu religions merge from the
twelfth century to generate a culture
at once philosophic, popular and
syncretic. Sufi/bhakti, a performative
tradition, continues until the
nineteenth century producing
remarkably beautiful, radical,
enlightened poetry and music.
Musicologists/musicians Madan
Gopal Singh and Shubha Mudgal,
active members of Sahmat, initiated
a virtually new movement in Indian
performing arts by conceiving and
choreographing Sahmat’s musical
caravans.
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h\i[gUbXh\Y]fWcibhYfdUfhgUacb[ghAig`]aZibXUaYbhU`]ghg"14
–
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cZbUffckgYWhUf]Ub]gaUbXUbcdYb]b[cihhch\YYaUbW]dUhcfmWi`hifU`
Geeta Kapur Secular Artist, Citizen Artist
431
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KUmgcZFYg]gh]b[
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GU\aUh]b8Y`\]]b&$$&µ$'"16
– H\]gkUgh\YdYf]cXk\YbUbYUf!ZUgW]gh]W
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14 Habib Tanvir (b.1923) is one of
India’s foremost theatre directors:
active since the 1940s with the most
radical art movements in northern
India ( PWA and IPTA), he trained at
theatre schools in England ( RADA
and Bristol Old Vic), returned to
India and formed his repertory
company Naya Theatre in the late
50s. Pioneering a new relationship
between the vernacular and the
modern (between actors from rural
and urban Indian contexts; between
texts from Sanskrit and Renaissance
traditions; between social realist,
Brechtian and popular forms), his
theatre exemplified the most
advanced form of democratic parity
in the conception of contemporary
arts in post-Independence India.
Tanvir, an inveterate atheist/
iconoclast, is a Muslim and has been
heckled and attacked by conservative
audiences, usually Hindu groups
claiming to be offended by his
handling of religion and caste.
432
Art and Social Change
The artist Maqbool Fida Husain
(b.1915) has been an icon for the
national imagination and has moulded
perceptions of modern art and visual
culture in post-Independence India.
Hindu fundamentalists now declare
Husain’s portrayal of Indian
iconography (drawn throughout his
long career from the prodigious
resource of Hindu mythology) to be
offensive to Hindu sentiments. In the
past few years he has had dozens of
criminal cases pending against him
in courts all over India and has been
forced into exile.
Tanvir has performed for and
been staunchly defended by Sahmat
whenever he has faced attacks.
Husain, though not especially close
to the left or to Sahmat, has received
support from Sahmat for the last ten
years in the form of press statements,
representations to the government,
symposia and publications. There is
a sustained effort to persuade the
public and the very state that has
honoured him with the highest
awards to safeguard his life and art.
15 At a more experimental level
Vivan Sundaram (activist-artist and
founder-trustee of Sahmat) has
curated several exhibitions for
Sahmat, such as an international
exhibition of mail art, ‘Gift for India’
(1997), followed (in 2001) by a playful
public-art project on the Delhi
streets called ‘Art on the Move’.
In 2004 and 2007 exhibitions on the
diverse history of this nation have
been curated by another Sahmat
activist, the photographer-designer
Ram Rahman.
16 Curated in 2002 by Vivan
Sundaram, this large exhibition was
comprised of seminal works from
the preceding decade. As always with
Sahmat, it was organised on a shoestring budget with contributions from
artists and Sahmat sympathisers.
Openly critical of the belligerently
anti-Sahmat, ruling rightwing
government, the exhibition showed
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XfUkgcbh\YhfUX]h]cbmYhgdY``gU`hYf]hm"17
– H\YUgd]fUh]cbcZgYWi`UfUfh]ghg
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cZh\YgYWi`Ufºk]h\]b\]gYlY[Yg]gcbh\Y¹d\]`cgcd\mºcZ
;UbX\]"18
– <YWcbg]XYfg]hbYWYggUfmh\UhkY ]bcifh]aY
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one hundred-or-so artworks,
including both paintings and major
installations (examples of which are
illustrated here) in a public space run
by the State Academy of Fine Arts
(Lalit Kala Akademi). It hosted films
and discussions and involved large
audiences including political leaders in
a dialogue with artworks that dared
to speak up against the onslaught of
fascistic tendencies in the country.
17 I refer to the artists
Gulammohammed Sheikh,
Nilima Sheikh and Arpana Cour.
18 See Akeel Bilgrami, ‘Secularism,
Nationalism and Modernity’, in Rajeev
Bhargava (ed.), Secularism and its
Critics, Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1998; and Akeel Bilgrami,
‘Gandhi, Newton and the
Enlightenment’, Social Scientist,
vol.34 nos.5–6, May–June 2006.
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19 I refer to artists Akbar
Padamsee, Surendran Nair
and Atul Dodiya.
20 Reference is to landmark
installations by Vivan Sundaram,
Rumanna Hussain, Navjot Altaf,
N.N. Rimzon, Pushpamala N., Sheba
Chhachhi and Tejal Shah, all made
in the aftermath of communal riots.
Reference is also to a growing body
of critical iconography about violence
by Arpita Singh, Sudhir Patwardhan,
Nalini Malani, Nataraj Sharma, Gargi
Raina and Jitish Kallat. Also included
in the exhibition were works and
documentation of initiatives by artistresistance groups in Baroda, Mumbai
and Bangalore who prepared imagetext exhibitions in the midst of
communal riots in their cities.
436
Art and Social Change
21 Artists Savi Savarkar, Suranjan
Basu, Probir Gupta, Veer Munshi,
Altaf Mohamedi, M.J. Enas and Rias
Komu, working in different mediums,
referred to the persistence of caste,
class, ethnic and religious conflict,
as did photographers Ram Rahman,
Parthiv Shah, Pablo Bartholomew and
Prashant Panjiar. Artists Jehangir Jani,
Inder Salim and Walter d’Souza
referred to gender dilemmas.
22 Besides the more journalistic
attacks, there are of course recurring
critical evaluations of Sahmat. The
oppositional polemic sustained by the
cultural theorist Rustom Bharucha
(see his In the Name of the Secular:
Contemporary Cultural Activism in India,
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998)
is to be positioned within the terms
of his larger interrogation of
secularism and left politics. Arindam
Dutta’s critique (ibid) is the most
remarkably researched and argued
text yet written on Sahmat. In an
elegant if elegiac form of narration,
Dutta marks the peaking of Sahmat’s
role in a direct adversarial mode
against an aggressive rightwing, and
he enumerates, regretfully, the
reasons that Sahmat seems to have
arrived at some form of closure.
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23 Avant-gardist practices have
emerged from other artist-run
groups: The Raqs Media Collective,
a trio located in the city of Delhi,
have developed a theory and practice
of documentary/video/new media art
to generate extended allegories of
subversion and site them punctually in
cyber-mohallas (neighbourhoods) and
cosmopolitan expositions alike. Given
their preferred tropes of migration/
displacement and marginality/
surveillance, they function across the
trans-cultural zone of global art and
bring a unique conceptual-discursive
politics into the Indian art scene.
Open Circle (Mumbai) is engaged in
the activist genre of public art – on
the streets of Mumbai protesting/
‘performing’ along with people’s
resistance movements or at sites such
as the World Social Forum in Mumbai
and other cities of the world.
Youthful organisations that are not
quite as political, such as Khoj
(Delhi), break ground with
workshops and residencies hosting
eccentric and transgressive artists
from all over the world. New
initiatives are also now being
encouraged in the private sector
where all art, even radical art,
is subject (of course) to rapid
commodification. What Sahmat
might do in the face of a rampant
art-market boom that draws Indian
artists into the vortex is another
story altogether!
Geeta Kapur Secular Artist, Citizen Artist
437
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– <]gkcf_
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h\YhchU`Xca]b]cbcZ[`cVU`WUd]hU`"25
–
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24 For an update on Patwardhan’s
films, see www.patwardhan.com. For
a radical contextualisation of his film
practice, see Anand Patwardhan,
‘Waves of Revolution and Prisoners
of Conscience: The Guerilla Film,
Underground and in Exile’, MA Thesis,
Department of Art History and
Communications, McGill University,
Autumn 1981. Patwardhan has seen
himself, and been seen by film
theorists such as Paul Willemen (see
Jim Pines and Paul Willeman [eds.],
Questions of Third Cinema, London:
BFI Publishing, 1989) as continuing to
contribute to the famous debate
initiated by the critics and filmmakers
Gettino and Solanas, in a work titled
438
Art and Social Change
Towards a Third Cinema. Other
references to Patwardhan include:
Sean Cubitt, ‘Interview with Anand
Patwardhan’, Framework, vol.30/31,
1986; Robert Crusz and Priyath
Liyanage, ‘Interview with Anand
Patwardhan’, Framework, vol.38/39,
1992; Miriam Sharma, ‘Anand
Patwardhan: Social Activist and
Dedicated Filmmaker’, Critical Asian
Studies, vol.34 no.2, June 2002.
25 A selected filmography for Amar
Kanwar includes: A Season Outside,
1998; Marubhum, 2000; The Many
Faces of Madness, 2000; King of
Dreams, 2001; A Night of Prophecy,
2002; To Remember, 2003; Somewhere
in May, 2005; and The Face, 2005 (the
first pair from his ongoing project of
four films on Burma). See Amar
Kanwar, Notes for A Night of Prophecy,
Chicago: The Renaissance Society,
2003; Anne Rutherford, ‘“Not firing
arrows”’: Multiplicity, Heterogeneity
and the Future of Documentary. An
interview with Amar Kanwar’, Asian
Cinema, vol.16 no.1, Spring 2005; Ida
Kierulf, ‘Amar Kanwar – Portraits’
(exh. cat.), Oslo: Fotogalleriet, 2005;
Marit Paasche, ‘Strong Political
Filmportraits’, Aftenposten, October
2005; Jerry Saltz, ‘Worlds Apart –
A Meditation on Separation: Amar
Kanwar Walks the Border Between
India and Pakistan’, Village Voice,
February 2004.
4 I first saw documentation
of a parade of this kind thanks to
the artist Christoph Büchel, a master
archivist of military propaganda
across the globe.
LINE DESCRIBING A CURB
ASYMPTOTES ABOUT VALIE E XPORT,
THE NEW URBANISM
AND CONTEMPOR ARY ART
M AR I N A V I S H M I DT
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1 For reasons of limited expertise
and space, the history in question will
primarily be one that developed in
Western Europe, although neither
the neoliberal template of urban restructuring, nor the role of culture in
it, has been confined to this part of
the world – dictated, as it is, by the
macro-economic and ideological
referents of ‘globalisation’.
2 A few references would include:
Neil Brenner and Nik Theodore
(eds.), Spaces of Neoliberalism: Urban
Restructuring in North America and
Western Europe, London: Blackwell,
2002; Rosalyn Deutsche, Evictions: Art
and Spatial Politics, Cambridge Mass.:
MIT Press, 1996; and the indispensable
London Particular website:
www.thelondonparticular.org
447
VALIE EXPORT
Body Configuration
Round Into, 1982
Body Configuration
with Red Hand,
1972 See also
Body Configuration
Encirclement 1976,
(back cover)
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¹W`YUbºjUf]UbhcZacXYfb]ghIhcd]U"
7ihg
H\Yg\UhhYf]b[cZgY`Z!dcggYggYXgcjYfY][bhmUi[ifYXVmgiXXYb`m`m]b[
XckbU`cb[UÃ][\hcZghcbYghYdg]g]bYlcfUV`mfY!_b]hVmh\YUfh
acbc[fUd\ Vihh\YfY]ggcaYh\]b[acfY"6– H\Y¹VcXmWcbÂ[ifUh]cbgº
]bh\Y]fXciV`YgW\YaUcZUWh]cbUbX]bgWf]dh]cb YbUWhUWcbÃ]WhYXacXY
cZYb[U[YaYbhk]h\gcW]U`fYU`]hm YaV`YaUh]WU``mdcg]h]cbYXUhghfYYh`YjY`"
3 The full title of the series
is Korperkönfigurationen, 1972–1976.
Abbreviated titles of individual pieces
include Einkreisung (Encirclement),
Starre Identität (Rigid Identity) and
Konfiguration mit Rote Hand
(Configuration with Red Hand).
4 The photographs in which
Susanne Widl appears are studies
for VALIE EXPORT’s 1977 feature-film
Unsichtbare Gegner (Invisible
Adversaries). This film was a site
for VALIE EXPORT to explore the
sculptural, geometric and psychic
possibilities of the ‘configurations’ in
the moving image and within a seminarrative construction.
5 A contemporary eye may
associate visuals of prone positions
in urban space with the homeless
population, but it should be noted
that the presence of homeless people
in 1970s Vienna was probably
negligible compared to that in many
Western cities today. The force
of the activity resides less in an
imaginary identification with those
who have nowhere but the street
to lie down, than in an aggressive
vulnerability that first violates extant
codes of polite civic behaviour,
especially for a woman, and then
turning that into its negative,
an aesthetic gesture.
6 ‘In depicting my annihilation –
or reproducibility – I simultaneously
preserve my existence.’ VALIE
EXPORT, quoted in Christina von
Braun, ‘Why Show Something That
Can Be Seen?’, Split:Reality – VALIE
EXPORT, Museum moderner Kunst
Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna: Springer,
1997, p.201. VALIE EXPORT is likely not
referring to her existence within the
art system in this statement, however,
but to a conceptual strategy guiding
her work with performance and
media technologies as a feminist artist.
Marina Vishmidt Line Describing A Curb Asymptotes About VALIE EXPORT, the New Urbanism and Contemporary Art
449
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]b\UV]hUbhcZUW]hmh\UhWYUgY`Ygg`mfYdfcXiWYgh\YgiV^YWh]j]hmcZh\YaUf_Yh"
7 I am here utilising ‘biopolitical’
specifically in its connotation of life
to be administered potentially as a
quantity and actually productive of
exchange value in capitalist relations.
The immediate reference is Paolo
Virno’s text ‘Recording the Present:
Essay on Historical Time’ at www.
generation-online.org/p/fpvirno11.
htm: ‘Here, the practical importance
assumed by potentiality as potentiality
in the capitalist relations of
production, its inseparability from
immediate corporeal existence, is
the exclusive foundation of the
biopolitical point of view…. It remains
450
Art and Social Change
clear that life, taken as the generic
substratum of potentiality, is an
amorphous life, reduced to a few
essential metahistoric traits.
Biopolitics is a particular and
derivative aspect of the inscription
of metahistory in the field of
empirical phenomena; an inscription,
we know, that historically distinguishes
capitalism.’
8 Here I am referring to the
concept of the ‘second nature’ of
industrial civilisation (Theodor
Adorno, Negative Dialectics, 1966).
There is also a vivid rehearsal of the
Surrealist precept of ‘salutary
alienation between humans and their
environment’, noted by Walter
Benjamin in his ‘A Short History of
Photography’ as politically generative.
Benjamin sites the activation of
unfamiliar relations that he would
later elaborate in ‘The Work of Art in
the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’,
which would also serve as a key
principle in the Arcades project, and
was present as early as ‘The Origin of
German Tragic Drama’. See ‘A Short
History of Photography’, quoted in
Roswitha Mueller’s book on VALIE
EXPORT, Fragments of the Imagination,
Indiana University Press, 1994, p.123.
quoted in Corinne Diseren, ‘Gordon
Matta-Clark: Opening Up Views
Through the Invisible’, p.146; Dan
Graham, ‘Gordon Matta-Clark’, p.230.
Marina Vishmidt Line Describing A Curb Asymptotes About VALIE EXPORT, the New Urbanism and Contemporary Art
451
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VYYbUWWcibhYXZcfVmh\YÃYl]V]`]hmcZh\YaUf_Yh/h\Ydc`]h]WU`WcbhYbhh\Uh
10 ‘Beyond the Purloined Image’
was a group exhibition curated in
1983 by Mary Kelly at the Riverside
Studios in London. Considered one
of the early focal expositions of
‘postmodernism’ in an exhibition
setting, the show articulated Kelly’s
psychoanalytic feminist concerns with
an emerging appropriation aesthetic
directed at dominant media imagery
and the subjectivities produced
thereby. My information about this
exhibition derives largely from the
review in Roszika Parker and Griselda
Pollock (eds.), Framing Feminism: Art
and the Women’s Movement 1970–1985,
London: Pandora Press, 1987.
452
Art and Social Change
11 The Situationist definition of
‘urbanism’, which is being invoked
here, is countered by their own praxis
of a ‘new unitary urbanism’ (with Constant and his New Babylon as one of
the attempts): ‘the crisis of urbanism
is all the more concretely a social and
political one, even though today no
force born of traditional politics is any
longer capable of dealing with it.
Medico-sociological banalities on the
“pathology of housing projects”, the
emotional isolation of people who
must live in them, or the development
of certain extreme reactions of denial,
chiefly in young people, simply betray
the fact that modern capitalism, the
bureaucratic consumer society, is
here and there beginning to shape its
own environment. This society, with its
new towns, is building the sites that
accurately represent it, combining the
conditions most suitable for its proper
functioning, while at the same time
translating into spatial terms, in the
clear language of the organisation of
everyday life, its fundamental principle
of alienation and constraint. It is
likewise here that the new aspects of
its crisis will be manifested with the
greatest clarity.’ ‘Editorial Notes:
Critique of Urbanism’, Internationale
Situationniste no.6, August 1961,
pp.3–11.
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– CbYjUf]UbhcZh\]g]gh\Y
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12 ‘Post-public’ is a reference
both to the re-consideration of the
modalities of art production in the
public realm and its relationship to
local communities as chronicled in
Miwon Kwon, One Place After Another:
Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity,
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002;
Suzanne Lacy, Mapping the Terrain:
New-Genre Public Art, Seattle, WA;
Bay Press 1995; and the recent Claire
Doherty (ed.), Contemporary Art: From
Studio to Situations, London: Black Dog
Publishing, 2005. The ‘public art’
these developments refer to may be
considered as riposte to the variously
caricatured artefacts of ‘plop art’ –
the abject dinosaurs supposedly
eclipsed by the contemporary
tendencies of more environmental,
recessed, dispersed and site-sensitive
work in the provisionally open zones
and sealed locales of what is
euphemistically termed ‘public space’.
Both the dinosaurs and the designsolution-inspired approach to public
art may be polemically grouped under
‘aesthetics, which the Situationists
characterised, along with urban
planning, as “a rather neglected
branch of criminology”’ (quoted in
R. Deutsche, ‘Uneven Development’,
Evictions, op. cit.) Enterprises such as
the Designing Out Crime Association
www.doca.org.uk/intro.asp (motto:
‘Context is Everything’) clarify this
hypothesis further.
13 See Mike Davis, Planet of Slums,
London and New York: Verso, 2006.
Also ‘Naked Cities – Struggles in the
Global Slums’, Mute, vol.2 no.3, 2006.
Although meriting a longer excursus
than possible here, the articulation
of artistic practices as serving to
beautify or pleasurably estrange the
furniture of daily life, as opposed to
an understanding of such practices as
optimally disruptive or incongruous
within that order, can be related
to Jacques Rancière’s discussion of
‘police’ as the maintenance of things
in their places in distinction from
‘politics’, which would be a challenge
to current arrangements and the
common sense that sustains them.
Marina Vishmidt Line Describing A Curb Asymptotes About VALIE EXPORT, the New Urbanism and Contemporary Art
453
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dc`]h]W]gUh]cbº"14
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d`YbhmcZ]bghUbWYgcZh\YgY k\YfYjYfh\YYad\Ug]gaUm`]Y"6ih]hg\ci`X
14 ‘It is the moment when everyday
experience turns against the
everyday, trying to attack it and
change it, the moment when everyday
454
Art and Social Change
experience becomes its own
radical critique.’ See Guy Debord,
‘Perspectives for Conscious
Alterations in Everyday Life’ (1981)
in K. Knabb (ed.), Situationist
International Anthology, Berkeley, CA :
Bureau of Public Secrets, 1989,
pp.68–75.
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G]acbXcbºgh\YcfmcZ]bX]j]XiU`UbXWc``YWh]jY]bX]j]XiUh]cb h\Y]bX]j]XiU`
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Xf]jY cZ]XYbh]hmZcfaUh]cb"15– H\]gÂbXgU`]bYcZfYgcbUbWY]bh\Ykf]h]b[g
cZ>YUb!@iWBUbWmUfcibXWcbWYdhgcZWcaaib]hmUbXg]b[i`Uf]hm"
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UgbUh]cb fY`][]cb df]bW]d`Yg YhW" h\YdfcV`YaUh]WcZU¹WcaacbºYldcgifY
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Wc!Yl]ghYbWYk]h\cih]XYbh]ÂWUh]cbgYlWYdhh\Y¹WcaacbºcZgYdUfUh]cbUbX
15 Gilbert Simondon is very
influential in the work of Gilles
Deleuze and Paolo Virno, among
many others. For a more extensive
discussion of Simondon and ‘transindividuality’ please see Paolo Virno,
‘Reading Gilbert Simondon:
Transindividuality, Technical Activity
and Reification’ in Radical Philosophy,
no.136, March/April 2006, pp.33–44
Marina Vishmidt Line Describing A Curb Asymptotes About VALIE EXPORT, the New Urbanism and Contemporary Art
455
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k\YfYdc`]h]WgVY[]bg"16
– =bZcfaYXVmh\YgYUddfcUW\Yg ]hWci`XVYUddcg]hY
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UbX`Y]gifYZcfh\cgYk\cWUbUZZcfX]h"17
– JUWUh]b[giW\ZcfagcZ
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VYWcaY¹Wcbgh]hiYbhºcf¹dfYÂ[ifUh]jYºdfUWh]WYg"18
–
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kUm]h]bjYbhg WcbWfYhY`m ZihifYgch\Yfh\Ubh\YcbY]bgWf]VYX]b¹h\YcfXYf
cZh\]b[gº WU``]b[]bhceiYgh]cbh\YWUhY[cf]WU`igYjU`iYcZh\YUfh#`]ZY
X]gh]bWh]cbUgUdc`]h]WU`¹ghfUhY[mcZhYbg]cbº"19
– FYWU``]b[6Yfhc`h6fYW\h
16 See The Inoperative Community,
Being Singular Plural and ‘The Question
of the Common and the
Responsibility of the Universal’ in
Chto delat?, iss. 9 (interview between
Artem Magun and Oxana Timofeeva with Jean-Luc Nancy at
www.chtodelat.org/index
php?option=com_content&task=view
&id=198&Itemid=123) for a more
nuanced exposition of Nancy’s
thinking in these areas: ‘The
responsibility of the universal is the
responsibility of this equality – of
the common (banal) – of the equality
that we need to think, given all the
necessary disparities of places,
roles, etc. Egalitarianism is a flagrant
abstraction, but its concretisation
has yet to be thought through: how
to think a differential equality, if I
dare say so…’
17 Paolo Virno and Antonio Negri
are among the ‘post-Operaist’
theorists who employ this term.
‘Constituent practices’ are the
456
Art and Social Change
modalities of collective struggle for
ways of life that exit from or render
obsolete capital’s control and
exploitation, and ‘constitute’ a
different mode of governance and
social production. These ‘constituent
practices’ can of course be realised
with variable impact depending on
the political and economic balance
of forces between the ‘constituent’
groups and individuals, the
‘constituted’ power of capital
and state. See also, for a related
discussion, Paolo Virno’s concept of
‘conservative violence’ in Grammar of
the Multitude, Los Angeles/New York:
Semiotexte, 2004, pp.42–43. The
ancient ‘right of resistance’ entails
not defending oneself from coercion
purely and simply, but defending
already enshrined rights and practices
in a community from encroachment
by another sovereign power;
‘conservative violence’ is protecting
what already exists, thus is not
concerned with seizure of power
but with developing and protecting
already existing practices, plurality
of experiences, and forms of
organisation that evacuate the
economy of representation.
18 I am alluding here to the use
of the terms in Sheila Rowbotham,
Hilary Wainwright and Lynne Segal,
Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and
the Making of Socialism, Newcastleupon-Tyne: Merlin Press, 1979.
‘Prefigurative practices’ would be
social, organisational and ethical
forms that try to concretely
implement their horizon of struggle
for a more just future society in
the present moment.
19 Loïc Wacquant, ‘Critical Thought
as Solvent of Doxa’, from http://
transform.eipcp.net/
transversal/0806/wacquant/en
20 The Park Fiction project started
in 1998. According to a friend
once resident in Hamburg, the
documentation of the project comes
to a halt with the culmination of its
‘art’ phase and the reading room
installation at Documenta xi in 2002.
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h\YgUaY.dfcÂh"5fidhifY]bh\]g¹X]ghf]Vih]cbcZh\YgYbg]V`YºµUg
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µ]gibUf[iUV`mbYYXYX Vih]ZUdd`]YXhcdc`]h]WU``m!a]bXYXUfhdfUl]g]b
21 For more introduction on Park
Fiction, see ‘The City is Unwritten:
Urban Experiences and Thoughts
Seen Through Park Fiction’ at
www.inthefield.info/unwritten.pdf
Park Fiction member Christoph
Schäfer’s ‘The Gothic Style Lives in
the Legs of the Cowboys’ is a sly
reflection on the horizon of postinstitutional critique and was
published as part of Transform’s
‘Do You Remember Institutional
Critique?’ at http://transform.eipcp.
net/p/e/transf/
correspondence/1147284572
There is much more material
available online in German, not
least on Park Fiction’s website,
www.parkfiction.org
Marina Vishmidt Line Describing A Curb Asymptotes About VALIE EXPORT, the New Urbanism and Contemporary Art
Geeta Kapur is a Delhi-based critic and curator. Her essays on art and cultural
theory are published world-wide; her books include Contemporary Indian Artists
(Vikas, 1978), When Was Modernism: Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practice in
India (Tulika, 2000) and Iconographies for the Present (Tulika, forthcoming). She
co-curated the ‘Bombay/ Mumbai’ section for ‘Century City: Art and Culture in
the Modern Metropolis’, Tate Modern, 2001. She has lectured and held Research
Fellowships in India and abroad.
Lucy Lippard is a writer and activist based in Galisteo, New Mexico. She is
the author/editor of twenty books on contemporary art and cultural criticism
including Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972
(Praeger, 1973), Get the Message? A Decade of Art for Social Change (E.P. Dutton,
1984), The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society
(The New Press, 1997) and On the Beaten Track: Tourism, Art and Place (The New
Press, 1999). She is also the co-founder of a number of New York-based groups
including Printed Matter, Heresies Collective, Political Art Documentation/
Distribution (PAD/D) and Artists Call against US Intervention in Central America.
John Milner is an art historian, exhibition organiser, critic and painter based in
London. He wrote specifically on art and the Paris Commune in Art, War and
Revolution in France, 1870–1871: Myth, Reportage and Reality (Yale University Press,
2000). His books on Russian art include Vladimir Tatlin and the Russian Avant-Garde
(Yale University Press, 1984), A Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Artists, 1420–1970
(Antique Collectors Club, 1993), Kazimir Malevich and the Art of Geometry
(Yale University Press, 1996) and, most recently, A Slap in the Face: Futurists in
Russia (Philip Wilson Publishing, 2007). He is Visiting Professor at the Courtauld
Institute of Art and is currently working on research regarding ‘Museums
of Modern Art as an International Phenomenon’.
Gerald Raunig lives in Vienna. He is a philosopher, co-ordinator of the
transnational research project republicart (http://republicart.net, 2002–2005)
and transform (http://transform.eipcp.net, 2005–2008) he also works at the eipcp
(European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies). He is member of the
editorial board of the multilingual web journal transversal (http://transversal.
eipcp.net/) and the Austrian journal for radical democratic cultural politics,
Kulturrisse. His recent books include Art and Revolution. Transversal Activism
in the Long Twentieth Century, (Semiotext(e), 2007) and Kritik der Kreativität
(ed. with Ulf Wuggenig, Turia+ Kant, 2007).
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Art and Social Change
Marina Vishmidt is a London-based writer and theorist. She is the editor
of Media Mutandis: A Survey of Arts, Technologies and Politics (NODE., 2006) and
Immaterial Labour: Work, Research and Art (b_books, forthcoming). Her essays
and reviews have appeared in Mute magazine, Untitled, LUX Online, Vertigo and
numerous anthologies and catalogues. She is currently conducting research
at the Jan van Eyck Academie in the Netherlands regarding ‘Urban Enclosures’,
‘Subjectivity, Labour and Time in Feminist Film’ and ‘Iterations of the Value
Form Within Contemporary Art Institutions’.
Tirdad Zolghadr is a freelance critic and curator based in Berlin. He writes
regularly for frieze, Parkett, Bidoun and other publications, and is editor-at-large
for Cabinet magazine. Zolghadr has curated events in a wide range of venues,
also co-curating the international Sharjah Biennial 2005. He is a founding member
of the Shahrzad art & design collective, and has recently published his first novel
Softcore (Telegram Books, 2007).
A B O U T TH E E D ITO R S
Will Bradley is a freelance writer and curator. He recently co-edited
Self Organisation/Counter-Economic Strategies (Lukas and Sternberg, 2006)
and curated the exhibition ‘Radical Software’ for the Wattis Institute
for Contemporary Art in San Francisco, 2006.
Charles Esche is Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and Research
Fellow at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. He is
an editor of Afterall journal with Mark Lewis, Thomas Lawson and Dieter
Roelstraete and Series Editor of Afterall Books with Mark Lewis. He co-curated
Istanbul Biennale 2005 with Vasif Kortun and has published a collection
of his essays, Modest Proposals (Baglam Press, 2005).
About the Authors
463
NOTE S
A number of different versions of the texts reproduced
here can be found within the archives and publications
listed in the notes and bibliography sections of this
book. Informative notes by the authors and translators
accompany many of these texts. For the purposes of this
book we have reprinted selected extracts in as close
a style to their original form as possible. Occasionally minor
amendments have been made by the editors to establish
consistency in style and offer clarification. We gratefully
acknowledge all of the authors, publishers and archivists
who kindly granted us permission to reproduce material
from their archives and publications.
Gustave Courbet
On 12 April 1871, the Paris Commune authorised Gustave
Courbet, as ‘president of the Painters’, to ‘reestablish the
museums of the city of Paris’. Placed at the head of the
Commission artistique pour la sauvegarde des musées
nationaux, Courbet is remembered as having saved the
Louvre collection from the widespread destruction that
followed the siege of the Commune. It was, however, his
speculation on ‘the reorganisation of art and its material
interests’ in the light of the ideals of the Commune, and
particularly his proposal to place art education in the hands
of the students and the galleries in the hands of the artists,
that most clearly and radically linked the rethinking of the
ideological construction of the sphere of art with a change
in the wider social and political conditions of art production
and distribution.
With the defeat of the Commune, Courbet was tried for
the destruction of a monument in Place de la Vendôme
which had commemorated Napoleon I’s victory at
Austerlitz. The Commune had called the Vendôme column
‘a barbaric monument, a symbol of brute force and false
glory, an affirmation of militarism, a negation of
international law, a permanent insult on the part of the
victors to the vanquished’ and decreed its demolition.
Courbet, who had publicly suggested the relocation,
replacement or destruction of the column on more than
one occasion, was held responsible and served six months
in prison. He died in exile in Switzerland five years later.
(The quotations here are from Petra Ten-Doesschate Chu
(ed. and trans.), Letters of Gustave Courbet, University
of Chicago Press, 1992.)
William Morris and Commonweal
A medievalist who rejected industrial production, William
Morris is known as Britain’s foremost proponent of the
Arts and Crafts style. Morris abandoned religion for art
while at college in the 1850s, and his political beliefs
continued to develop alongside his working methods. He
joined the Democratic Federation, the first Marxist political
party in England, in 1883, but left it soon afterwards. Along
with Eleanor Marx, Walter Crane and Ernest Belfort Bax
among others, he founded the Socialist League in 1884. The
League’s manifesto stated that it was ‘a body advocating the
464
Art and Social Change
principles of Revolutionary International Socialism… We
have already shown that the workers, although they
produce all the wealth of society, have no control over its
production or distribution: the people, who are the only
really organic part of society, are treated as a mere
appendage to capital – as a part of its machinery. This must
be altered from the foundation: the land, the capital, the
machinery, factories, workshops, stores, means of transit,
mines, banking, all means of production and distribution of
wealth must be declared and treated as the common
property of all.’ The League’s journal, the Commonweal, sold
a few thousand copies weekly for over a decade. Morris
and Crane were regular contributors; Morris’s body of
writing of this period, from The Decorative Arts (1877) to
The Socialist Ideal: Art (1891) represents perhaps the first
concerted efforts to produce a Marxist theory of art. As an
activist, he was fined for ‘delivering an address thus
encouraging a crowd’ in Marylebone, London, in July 1886,
and was part of the ‘free speech’ demonstration of 13
November 1887 in Trafalgar Square – ‘Bloody Sunday’ –
that was routed by a regiment of troops. (Morris produced
a pamphlet, illustrated by Walter Crane, mourning the
death of protester Alfred Linnell at a subsequent
demonstration).
Walter Crane
Walter Crane, designer and illustrator, was born in
Liverpool in 1845. He was the first President of the Arts
and Crafts Exhibition Society in 1888, and contributed
writing and designs to many publications associated with
the emerging British labour movement. Walter Crane’s
drawing Stop the War appeared in The War Against War,
a periodical published by the Stop The War Committee.
The Committee was founded in 1899 by William Thomas
Stead to focus opposition to the Second Boer War.
Louise Michel was active during the Paris Commune
as an ambulance driver and militia member and was
subsequently deported to the French penal colony of New
Caledonia. On her return to France she was again arrested
several times and spent four years in exile in London; she
founded a free school in Fitzroy Square, in 1891, for the
children of political refugees. Walter Crane illustrated
the prospectus. The school was closed by the authorities
two years later.
The Workers’ Maypole was published in 1894 in Justice,
the weekly journal of the Democratic Federation (later
the Social Democratic Federation).
John Reed and The Paterson Strike Pageant
John Reed was an American journalist, essayist and poet.
In 1913 he joined the staff of The Masses, a well-known
socialist journal in New York in the years before WWI.
Reed was arrested for speaking in support of striking silkmill workers in Paterson, New Jersey, and later that same
year he was involved in organising the Pageant of the
Paterson Strike at Madison Square Garden. In the words
of US art historian Linda Nochlin: ‘On the evening of June
7th, 1913, an important incident in the history of radical
self-consciousness and in the history of public art in this
country took place. In the old Madison Square Garden,
in New York City, before an estimated audience of 15,000,
beneath bright red electric lights spelling out ‘I.W.W.’ in
10-foot-high letters above the building, a cast of about
1,500 striking silk workers – mainly Italian, Jewish and
Polish immigrants – reenacted the major incidents of the
strike then taking place in Paterson, N.J., under the aegis
of organisers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Carlo Tresca, Patrick
Quinlan and Big Bill Haywood, dedicated leaders of the
so-called ‘Wobblies’ – the International Workers of the
World. The Paterson Strike Pageant itself had come into
being mainly through the efforts of the young John Reed,
who was later to gain fame for his firsthand account of
the Russian Revolution, Ten Days That Shook the World.’
(Linda Nochlin, ‘The Paterson Strike Pageant of 1913’,
Art in America, New York, May/June.)
Richard Huelsenbeck
Richard Huelsenbeck was active as a WWI German
exile in the founding of the Dada movement in Zurich.
He moved back to Berlin after the war and was part
of a group that allied Dadaist principles to the ideals
of the abortive German revolution of November 1918.
Huelsenbeck always saw Dada as something other than
an art movement. ‘[Tristan] Tzara, in Paris, eliminated
from Dadaism its revolutionary and creative element and
attempted to compete with other artistic movements…
Dada is perpetual, revolutionary “pathos” aimed at
rationalistic bourgeois art. In itself it is not an artistic
movement. … Tzara did not invent Dadaism, nor did he
really understand it.’ (Richard Huelsenbeck, ‘Dada Lives’,
1936, quoted in Stewart Home, The Assault on Culture,
London: Unpopular Books, 1988.)
Otto Dix, Hannah Höch, John Heartfield, Raoul
Hausmann and George Grosz among others took part in
the First International Dada Exhibition (Erste International
Dada-Messe) at Otto Burchard’s gallery on Lützow Ufer
in Berlin, the last public exhibition of the Berlin Dadaists,
in 1920.
Komfut
Osip Brik and Boris Kushner announced the creation of
Komfut, a group of Kommunisty-futuristy (CommunistFuturists) with which Vladimir Mayakovsky was also
associated, in the journal Iskusstvo kommuny (Art of the
Commune) on 2 February 1919. Komfut and Iskusstvo
kommuny were dedicated to developing a political Futurism,
aiming to persuade the Communist Party to abandon what
they saw as its reactionary cultural policy. However, Party
acceptance was not the ultimate goal, according to one of
the editors of Iskusstvo kommuny, Nikolai Punin: ‘Only the
young, affiliated with the so-called “Futurist” movement,
know, and know very well, what they want, and have
presented the whole extent of the problem of proletarian
art, and naturally, no one else can solve it. … Recently
we have come to hear more than once: “Futurism” aspires
to be a state art … we do not need the state. It is not
necessary, firstly because we are fighting for a socialist
future which the state does not know, secondly because we
possess “the adamant spirit of perpetual revolt”.’ (Nikolai
Punin, ‘Futurizm – gosudarstvennoe iskusstvo’ (‘Futurism –
a state art’), Iskusstvo kommuny, no.4, 29 December 1918;
translated in Christina Lodder, ‘The Press for a New Art
in Russia 1917–1921’, in Virginia Marquardt (ed.), Art and
Journals on the Political Front 1918–1940, Gainesville:
University Press of Florida, 1997.)
Aleksandr Rodchenko
Russian Constructivist Aleksandr Rodchenko was born
in 1891 in St. Petersburg and died in 1956. His design for
a Workers’ Club was presented at the Exposition
Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes
in Paris, 1925.
Varavara Stepanova
An influential theorist and teacher Varvara Stepanova was
one of the main proponents of Constructivist practice and
a co-founder, with Aleksandr Rodchenko and Alexei Gan,
of the First Working Group of Constructivists. In her early
twenties, at the time of the Russian Revolution, Stepanova
produced many poster and agit-prop designs and was one
of the organisers of the seminal 1921 exhibition ‘5×5=25’.
Later she became a professor at Vkhutemas (an art and
technical college in Moscow created after the revolution
by the merging of the schools of fine and applied arts)
and a designer for the First State Textile Factory.
INKHUK was the abbreviated title of the Institut
Khudozhestvennoy Kultury, or the Institute of Artistic
Culture. Its role was to examine the theoretical
imperatives of art and provide ideological guidance
for artists and students. Kandinsky was appointed
Director in May 1920, and devised an initial programme
to analyse the relation between art and spirit or psyche.
This was rejected by other members of the Institute, who
argued for a more objective approach, and Kandinsky was
ousted in 1921. The committee proceeded to define and
implement a broadly Constructivist programme. Branches
of INKHUK were opened in Petrograd, under Tatlin, and
Vitebsk, under Malevich, but the Institute was abolished
in 1923.
William Pickens and The Messenger
William Pickens was a journalist, essayist and an organiser
for the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People. He became a militant advocate of full
citizenship for African Americans. The Messenger was
launched in Harlem, New York, in 1917 by A. Philip
Randolph and Chandler Owen as a journal of Black
radicalism and socialism. An early editorial from The
Messenger, entitled ‘The Cause and Remedy for Race
Riots’, suggested that ‘Revolution must come. By that we
mean a complete change in the organisation of society.
Just as absence of industrial democracy is productive of
riots and race clashes, so the introduction of industrial
democracy will be the longest step toward removing
that cause. When no profits are to be made from race
friction, no one will longer be interested in stirring up
race prejudice. The quickest way to stop a thing or to
destroy an institution is to destroy the profitableness
of that institution. The capitalist system must go and its
going must be hastened by the workers themselves.’
In her introduction to a recent anthology of articles
from The Messenger, Sondra Kathryn Wilson suggests that
Notes
465
the journal’s ‘spirit of rebellion helped to engender the
Harlem Renaissance’. (S.K. Wilson (ed.), The Messenger
Reader, New York: The Modern Library, 2000).
The Messenger ceased publication in 1928.
Theo van Doesburg
Dutch artist, designer and poet Theo van Doesburg (born
in Utrecht in 1883) was important in making links between
various elements of the politicised European avant-garde
after WWI. A founder of the movement (and journal) De
Stijl, van Doesburg also published Dadaist writings under
the pseudonym I.K. Bonset. He formed, with El Lissitzky
and Hans Richter, the International Faction of
Constructivists (I.F.d.K.) at the Congress of International
Progressive Artists held in Düsseldorf in May 1922. At the
Congress, the Union of International Progressive Artists
called for a ‘permanent, universal, international exhibition
of art everywhere in the world’. The I.F.d.K responded ‘We
reject the present conception of an exhibition: a warehouse
stuffed with unrelated objects, all for sale. Today we stand
between a society that does not need us and one that does
not yet exist’. (Stephen Bann (ed.), The Tradition of
Constructivism, New York: Viking, 1974.)
Mieczysław Szczuka
Mieczysław Szczuka was a member, with Katarzyna
Kobro, Henryk Stazewski and Teresa Zarnowerowna
and others, of the Polish Constructivist group Blok
founded by Władysław Strzemiłski in Lodz in 1924.
His was also an editor of the associated journal of the
same name published in Warsaw. An early editorial
printed in the journal defines Constructivism as, among
other things, ‘the inseparability of the problems of art
and the problems of society’ (Blok, no.6–7, Warsaw,
1924, translated by John Bowlt in Stephen Bann (ed.),
The Tradition of Constructivism, London: Thames
and Hudson, 1974). Szczuka was a filmmaker,
photographer, designer and architectural theorist. As
a graphic designer he produced material for the Polish
Communist Party, though he never became a Party
member. The group Blok split in 1926 over Szczuka’s
disdain for the ‘consolation’ of ‘art for its own sake’,
which he called ‘the defining lie of the capitalist world’.
Szczuka died in 1927, at the age of 29"
The John Reed Clubs
The John Reed Clubs, with their slogan ‘Art is a
class weapon’, were formed by the US Communist Party
in the late 1920s and early 1930s to organise writers
and artists along Soviet ideological lines. Realist
‘proletarian’ literature was promoted by ‘little magazines’
published by the local Clubs. These included Left Front
(Chicago), Midland Left (Indianapolis) and the early Partisan
Review (New York). Many members were uncomfortable
with increasingly Stalinist Communist Party strictures
but, before their opposition became outspoken,
Comintern (Communist International) policy changed
direction and the John Reed Clubs were voted out of
existence at the 1935 American Writers’ Congress.
The left-wing journal New Masses, in which this manifesto
first appeared, was published in the US from 1926 to
1948, with the ambition to ‘strike its roots strongly
into American reality’.
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Art and Social Change
La Révolution Surréaliste
La Révolution Surréaliste was published in Paris from 1924
to 1929; it was edited by Pierre Naville and Benjamin
Péret and later by André Breton. Collages and accounts
of dreams were presented alongside manifestos and
provocations which rejected established politics in favour
of an ideal of total liberation and an ‘absolute revision’ in
values. Many of the collectively signed Surrealist group
texts from this period, including the two reproduced here,
are thought to be primarily the work of Breton. ‘Revolution
Now and Forever!’ was co-signed by the editors of the
French Marxist journal Clarté, and marks the Surrealists’
first explicit embrace of a tangible political programme.
Oswald de Andrade
Cannibalist Manifesto by Oswald de Andrade was the
founding text of Antropofagismo, the Cannibalist Movement.
This Brazilian avant-garde group was founded in São Paolo in
1928 and the manifesto was printed in its journal, the Revista
de Antropofagia. Andrade dated the founding of Brazil as the
year 1556 when the Portuguese missionary Bishop Sardinha
was eaten by the indigenous Caetés people; he proposed
this encounter as a model for future interaction with colonial
culture. On the occasion of the Surrealist poet Benjamin
Péret’s arrival in São Paolo, Andrade acknowledged the
influence of Surrealism with the words ‘The final despair
of these Christianised peoples had never been so inspiring.’
(Diário de São Paolo, 17 March, 1929, translated in Review:
Latin American Literature and Arts, no.51, Fall 1995).
Notes on the translation: The Tupi are one of the
indigenous peoples of South America decimated by
Portuguese colonisation. They originally inhabited the
Amazon region and practised cannibal rituals. The Gracchi
were Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, martyrs to the cause
of social reform in Rome, in the 2nd century B.C. Their
mother was Cornelia. Saudade is a Portuguese word
that expresses a melancholy but hopeful longing. Nicolas
Durand de Villegaignon was a French explorer who
attempted to establish a colony in the area of modern Rio
de Janeiro in 1855. Father Antônio Vieira was a Portuguese
Jesuit missionary in Brazil in the seventeenth century.
‘Catiti Catiti, Imara Notiá, Notiá Imara, Ipejú’ is a quotation
from ‘O Selvagem’ (‘The Savages’, 1876) by José Vieira
Couto de Magalhães that could be translated as ‘the new
moon blows in every man’s remembrances of me’, though
it is not translated in Andrade’s Portuguese text. The Jabuti
is a species of tortoise common in Brazil. Guaraci and
Jaci are the Tupi gods of the sun and the moon. Pindorama
is the Tupi word for Brazil. Don João VI governed as the
Portuguese Prince of Brazil from 1792 to 1816, and was
later the King of Portugal from 1816 to 1826.
Kurt Tucholsky, John Heartfield and Deutschland
Deutschland Über Alles
Kurt Tucholsky was a novelist and journalist in the years of
the Weimar Republic. John Heartfield was a Berlin Dadaist
and a pioneer of photo-montage as an agit-prop tool. Their
book Deutschland Deutschland Über Alles was a relentless
satirical attack on all sectors of German society, though
principally on the military, the bourgeoisie, the government
and the police. Controversial in Germany when it first
appeared in 1929, by 1933 it was among those publications
marked for burning by the Nazi regime. The book’s
precisely calculated juxtapositions of image and text were
intended to show ‘systematically: this is how you are being
whipped, this is how you are being educated, this is how
you are being treated, this is how you are being punished’.
Tucholsky believed that photographs ‘made tendentious by
their arrangement and their captions’ were ‘an immensely
dangerous weapon’. Nonetheless, he lamented the contrast
between the strength of the hostile critical response to his
work, and its impotence as a political tool. ‘I am slowly
becoming a megalomaniac as I read how I have ruined
Germany,’ he wrote, ‘but for twenty years I have been
bothered by one thing: that I have not succeeded in getting
a single policeman dismissed from his post.’ (Letters
and articles by Kurt Tucholsky quoted in Harry Zohn’s
afterword to the English edition of Deutschland Deutschland
Über Alles (trans. Anne Halley), Amherst: UMP, 1972).
KOSTUFRA and Bauhaus: The Students’ Voice
Bauhaus: The Students’ Voice was the journal of the Bauhaus
students’ communist group, KOSTUFRA. Some 16 issues
were published between 1930 and 1931. The Bauhaus was
founded in Germany in 1919 as a school for a new art in a
spirit of utopian optimism. As Oskar Schlemmer wrote in
a flyer promoting the first Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar
in 1923, ‘The Staatliches Bauhaus, founded after the
catastrophe of the war, in the chaos of the revolution, and
in the era of the flowering of an emotion-laden, explosive
art, becomes the rallying-point of all those who, with belief
in the future and with sky-storming enthusiasm, wish to
build the “cathedral of socialism”.’ Founding Director Walter
Gropius had believed that ‘Art and state are irreconcilable
concepts … The creative spirit … refuses to be limited by
the laws of the state’ (Walter Gropius, ‘Reply to Arbeitsrat
für Kunst Questionnaire’, 1919, in Charles Harrison and Paul
Wood, Art in Theory 1900–1990, Oxford: Blackwell, 1992).
Realpolitik caught up with the school, however, and
particularly with the second director, the Swiss architect
Hannes Meyer. Meyer, a committed egalitarian pragmatist
rather than a utopian visionary, had emphasised the
social applications of functional architecture and industrial
design and proposed, among other things, an alliance
with Vkhutemas in Moscow. He was sceptical of the
artistic direction of the Bauhaus, and in his first speech to
the students as director he had asked ‘Will our work be
directed inwards or outwards? Shall we turn our attention
to the needs of humanity, and collaborate in building a
new way of life, or shall we become an island …?’ (Gillian
Naylor, The Bauhaus, London: Studio Vista, 1968.)
The controversy over his sacking and replacement by
Mies van der Rohe was commented upon by KOSTUFRA
in the third issue of Bauhaus: The Students’ Voice. A near
complete set of issues of The Students’ Voice is held at
the Bauhaus Archive, Berlin.
Notes on the translation: Rote hilfe is Red Aid, an
international social service organisation connected to the
Communist International, founded in 1922 to function as a
political Red Cross. The Prellerhaus was a Bauhaus student
dormitory and studio building. Laubenganghäuser are
balconies; the implication here is that Gropius designed
houses with private balconies as opposed to the ‘public
access’ balconies of Meyer. The Rheinlandrummel possibly
refers to the late eighteenth century French occupation
of the Rheinland.
Felicia Browne
Felicia Browne was a member of the Artists International
Association, an organisation founded in London in 1933 to
oppose ‘imperialist war on the Soviet Union, Fascism, and
Colonial Oppression’. Practical measures suggested in the
AIA’s first statement of aims included producing posters,
illustrations, cartoons and banners; spreading propaganda
via exhibitions, the press, lectures and meetings; working
with the Workers’ School; taking part in strikes and
producing newspapers. These methods represented a
desire to take political action as artists, but also to find
methods that went beyond simply producing pictures.
Browne had a strong sense of the limitations of her art
practice in relation to her political commitment; she was
killed in action in August 1936, having given up painting and
sculpture to fight for the Republican cause in the Spanish
Civil War. The extract included here is from a letter she
wrote shortly before her death; it was reproduced in the
introduction to the catalogue of the AIA’s 25th anniversary
exhibition in 1958. See Lynda Morris and Robert Radford
(eds.), AIA: The Story of the Artists’ International Association,
Oxford: Museum of Modern Art, 1983.
British Surrealist Group and We Ask Your Attention
The British Surrealist Group published this broadsheet
to mark the occasion of the AIA’s 1937 exhibition, held in
Grosvenor Square, London. Signed by many of the most
prominent British artists of the time, it accuses the British
government of effectively supporting Fascism through its
policy of non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War. On
May Day 1938, the AIA and the Surrealists took part in
a large and broad-based anti-Fascist demonstration that
paraded across London. The artists James Cant, F.E.
McWilliam, Roland Penrose and Julian Trevellyan
marched in masks modelled on the Prime Minister,
Neville Chamberlain, while making Nazi salutes. The
‘Internationale’ played through loudspeakers that were
attached to the top of an accompanying car along with
a skeleton in a giant birdcage, while a large horse’s head
mounted on an ice-cream seller’s tricycle followed behind.
(Lynda Morris and Robert Radford (eds.), AIA: The Story
of the Artists’ International Association, 1933–53, Oxford:
Museum of Modern Art, 1983, pp.48–49)
László Moholy-Nagy and Vision in Motion
The Hungarian artist Moholy-Nagy joined the staff of the
Bauhaus in 1923. He resigned in 1928, when Gropius
stepped down as director; in his letter of resignation, he
expressed concern with the direction of the Bauhaus
programme: ‘We are now in danger of becoming what we
as revolutionaries opposed: a vocational training school
which evaluates only the final achievement and overlooks
the development of the whole man.’ (Stephen Bann (ed.),
The Tradition of Constructivism, London: Thames and
Hudson, 1974.) Moholy-Nagy left Germany soon
afterwards, Moholy-Nagy was looking not only for a place
to settle but a sympathetic setting in which to continue
developing his Constructivist-inflected vision of integrated
technical art education. Somewhat unsuccessful in London,
where the Royal College of Art refused to employ him,
he accepted an invitation to open a corporate-sponsored
New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937. This lasted only a year,
though it reopened in 1939 as the School of Design with
Notes
467
a volunteer teaching staff (For more information, see Han
Wingler, Bauhaus in America: Repercussion and Further
Development, Berlin: Bauhaus Archive, 1972). The book
Vision in Motion, completed shortly before Moholy-Nagy’s
death in 1946, shows a notable shift away from the
uncompromising functionalist rhetoric of his earlier writing.
In the light of his American experience, and his disquiet
with the pragmatism of the later Dessau Bauhaus, he moves
towards a defence of an ideal of art as responsive to human
need, rather than to capital or ideology.
Georges Maciunas and Fluxus Manifesto
In July 1961, Georges Maciunas and Almus Salcius opened
the AG Gallery on Madison Avenue in New York, where
the first Fluxus events took place. For Maciunas, the attack
on the constitution of art was politically inspired, and
was hoped to have consequences both within the formal
art world and beyond it. An extensive bibliography
on the Fluxus movement can be found online at http://
www.artpool.hu/Fluxusbibliography/default.html.
The Situationist International
A group of artists, writers and theorists formally
constituted The Situationist International in 1957. Primarily
based in Paris, but with a membership in other western
European countries and the US, the SI published a journal,
the Internationale Situationniste, from 1958 until 1969. The
SI formally disbanded in 1972, but by this point numerous
splits and expulsions had reduced the membership to a
handful, with Guy Debord the only remaining founding
member. Nonetheless, the group’s ideas remain
controversial and influential, particularly regarding the
question of the relationship between artistic aesthetics
and political action. A comprehensive archive of English
language versions of Situationist texts can be found online
at www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/ and at the Bureau of Public
Secrets website, http://www.bopsecrets.org/.
Black Mask
The Black Mask group, founded in New York in 1966 by Ben
Morea and Dan Georgiakis, was a short-lived group of artactivists that gave rise to the more direct-action oriented
organisation Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker in May
1968. The Garbage action took place in 1968 and was the
subject of a short film by the New York-based Newsreel
collective of independent film-makers. For further
information, see Stewart Home (ed.), Black Mask and
Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker, London: Unpopular
Books, 1993.
Sture Johannesson and Psychedelic Manifesto
Sture Johannesson is a photographer and print-maker and
was an active member of the self-styled underground in
1960s Sweden. An advocate of psychedelic drugs and
anarchist political values, he produced a series of iconic
posters in the late 1960s and his activities often brought
him into conflict with the local authorities. A planned
exhibition at Lunds Konsthall was cancelled when the
Board of the Konsthall took exception to the poster for
the show, which featured a naked, pink, pipe-smoking
woman and the slogan ‘Revolution means revolutionary
consciousness’. Johannesson made an explicit connection
between the criminalisation of psychedelics and a radical
468
Art and Social Change
political awareness. The poster reproduced on p.136
was made in response to a call for proposals for public
artworks to adorn the Royal Palace in Stockholm;
Johannesson’s suggestion was to place a giant neon sign on
the roof that read ‘The Kingdom is Within You’. Sture and
Ann-Charlotte Johannesson founded Galleri Cannabis in
Ann-Charlotte’s weaving studio in Malmö, Sweden in 1965.
Albert Hunt and Hopes for Great Happenings
Albert Hunt taught at the Regional College of Art in
Bradford, England between 1965 and 1973. In 1965, the
College had failed to gain approval to run a Diploma course
in Art and Design; this left Hunt free to devise his own
syllabus. He developed an open-ended class in which the
students improvised happenings and events that explored
their own social and political situations and interests. These
experiments led to the formation of the Bradford Art
College Theatre Group, which produced larger scale public
manifestations. The most ambitious of these included The
Russian Revolution in Bradford (1967), a day-long
performance of the events of the October Revolution of
1917 overlaid on the everyday life of the town, and the stage
plays The Passion of Adolf Hitler and John Ford’s Cuban Missile
Crisis (Bradford Art College Theatre Group, John Ford’s
Cuban Missile Crisis, London: Eyre Methuen 1972).
R.G. Davis and Guerrilla Theatre
Ronald G. Davis founded a theatre group in San Francisco
in 1959 that became the San Francisco Mime Troupe soon
afterwards (motto: ‘Engagement, commitment, and fresh
air’). The Mime Troupe combined Brechtian principles
with Italian commedia dell’arte (‘Why commedia? The
intrinsic nature of commedia is its working-class viewpoint.
Its origins are the alleys and corners of the marketplace’).
The Mime Troupe’s performances developed in parallel
with the counter-culture of the time, and soon they were
giving free outdoor shows of plays they had written
themselves, staging political benefits, and debating the
relative merits of artistic aesthetics and agit-prop
confrontation. Their permit to perform Il Candelaio
(adapted by SFMT member Peter Berg from Giordano
Bruno’s 1582 original) was revoked once the San Francisco
Park Commission saw the play; the police attended
the subsequent performance on 7 August 1965. Davis
responded with a dramatic introduction, ‘Signor, Signora,
Signorini / Madame, Monsieur, Mademoiselle / Ladieeeees and
Gentlemen / Il Troupo di Mimo di San Francisco / Presents
for your enjoyment this afternoon / AN ARREST!!!’ He
then jumped into the arms of a waiting policeman and
was promptly taken away.
Davis formalised this emerging practice in two essays
on ‘Guerrilla Theatre’ (in 1965 and 67) and one on
‘Cultural Revolution’ (1968), though he later revised his
position, writing that the SFMT ‘treated our audiences to
an ad-agency-like bombardment, by telling the “truth”,
protesting the “outrages” and showing examples of purity
as if our “product” could be sold like cigarettes …’. Davis
left the Mime Troupe in 1970, later becoming the Director
of Epic West, a Berkeley cultural centre devoted to the
works of Brecht. As of 2007, the Mime Troupe continue to
perform in San Francisco. (The quotations here are from
R.G. Davis, The San Francisco Mime Troupe: The First Ten
years, Palo Alto: Ramparts Press 1975).
The Diggers
The San Francisco Diggers were a loose group of
performers and activists founded by several former
San Francisco Mime Troupe members, including Emmett
Grogan, Billy Murcott and Peter Berg, in 1966. Beginning
their activities with the distribution of anonymous printed
broadsides, they developed a well-organised underground
society, centred around the Haight-Ashbury community,
that aimed to operate as far as possible without
reproducing capitalist social relationships.
In the preface to his Phd thesis The Haight Ashbury
Diggers and the Cultural Politics of Utopia 1965–68
(University of Michigan 1997, UMI Microform 9813931, p.2),
Michael Doyle writes that the Diggers ‘rejected
mass organisation itself because it inevitably imposed
hierarchical power relations … Their model envisaged
small-scale, independent bands of “life-actors” with more
informal, contingent, interchangeable leadership and
an “open” membership posture. … Power need only
be assumed by enacting it.’
The Diggers dispersed at the end of the 1960s into
a network of variously utopian, revolutionary and artistic
groups, some of whom continued to describe themselves
as members of the larger and more abstract Free Family.
A comprehensive history of the Diggers, and archive of
their writing, is maintained by Eric Noble and accessible
online at www.diggers.org.
Experience 68
Against the background of a self-described politicised
artistic avant-garde in Argentina in the 1960s, the events
surrounding the exhibition ‘Experiencias 68’ at the
Di Tella Institute in Buenos Aires became the trigger for
a coordinated withdrawal and a rethinking of the terms
of cultural engagement on the part of a group of Argentine
artists. Pablo Suarez declined to take part in the
exhibition, sending instead a letter outlining the reasons
for his refusal. Roberto Jacoby presented a text that
included the words: ‘The work of art is also finished
because life and the earth itself are beginning to be art.
For this reason there is everywhere a necessary battle,
bloody and beautiful, for the creation of a new world.
And the avant-garde must go on affirming history, affirming
the just, heroic violence of this fight.’ The exhibition was
closed by the authorities because another exhibit – which
invited the public to write graffiti on the walls of a toilet –
had led to the writing of slogans critical of the military
dictatorship of General Ongania. The participating artists
destroyed their work in protest at the closure and
distributed a text explaining the reasons for their actions.
Another group of artists hijacked a talk by the exhibition’s
curator, Jorge Romero Brest, and delivered their own
address: ‘… We believe that art implies an active
confrontation with reality – active because it aspires to
transform it. We believe, in consequence, that art should
constantly question the structures of official culture. …
Death to all bourgeois institutions. Long live the art of
the revolution.’
A conference of committed artists followed, in Rosario
in 1968, with the aim of formulating a new practice and
programme of action. Alliances were made with political
organisations, unions, workers’ parties, and students, and a
project developed that focused on the documentation and
publicisation of the exploitation and harsh living conditions
of sugar plantation workers in the province of Tucumán.
An exhibition was mounted in Rosario and in Buenos
Aires, where it was closed by the police. The Declaration
of the Argentine Artists’ Committee reproduced here was
made on the occasion of the exhibition’s closure. The
translations presented here were made by Harry
Polkinhorn, for Clemente Padin’s Art and People: Latin
American Art in Our Time, published online in 1997 at
http://www.concentric.net/~lndb/padin/lcpkint.htm.
Atelier Populaire
The Atelier Populaire was founded in May 1968 by
students at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, to produce
posters in support of the student uprisings and university
occupations of the time, and the factory occupations
and strikes that followed. An eyewitness account of the
May 1968 conflicts and a discussion of the politics of the
movement can be found in Daniel and Gabriel CohenBendit’s book Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing
Alternative, Oakland: AK Press 2001.
Emory Douglas
The Black Panther Party for Self Defense (later known
simply as the Black Panther Party) was founded in
Oakland in 1967 by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton
with a radical ten-point programme for the rights and
advancement of the African American community of
the US, framed in international socialist terms. Emory
Douglas took the role of the BPP’s Minister of Culture
and oversaw the production of the party’s newspaper
from its beginnings in 1967 through to the late 1970s.
At its peak, the paper had a weekly circulation of
400,000. Douglas’s imagery did not glamorise the hoped
for revolution but portrayed a process in action, showing
Black Americans as local actors in an international
insurrection. Trained as a commercial artist, Douglas
understood the power of advertising and believed it
should be used to attack the capitalist system rather
than to serve it.
Hans Haacke
Painter, sculptor and conceptual artist Hans Haacke
was born in Cologne in 1936. Since the late 1960s, his
work has been primarily concerned with the political
and economic systems of the art world; his planned
1971 solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in
New York was cancelled, allegedly because it would have
foregrounded the corporate connections of the Museum’s
trustees. Haacke also participated in certain protest
actions of the Art Workers’ Coalition. Critic and curator
Jack Burnham was born in 1931. He wrote Beyond Modern
Sculpture (New York: Gaziller, 1968), and curated the
exhibition ‘Software’ at the Jewish Museum in New York
in 1970.
The Guerrilla Art Action Group (GAAG)
The Guerrilla Art Action Group, founded by Jon
Hendricks and Jean Toche and later augmented by several
other members, organised a series of high-profile protest
actions in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Opposition to the Vietnam War was combined with a
wider attack on the exclusive nature of the established
Notes
469
institutions of art. Often in alliance with other groups, such
as the Art Workers’ Coalition, the GAAG used tactics
including guerrilla theatre, agit-prop exhibitions, poster
distribution, sit-ins and occupations at the major New York
museums to publicly criticise the links between the formal
art world, the military state, and corporate interests.
Cildo Meireles
Meireles’s Insertions into Ideological Circuits were an
extension of ideas of Conceptual art, or the ‘happening’,
into a wider public realm. Meireles printed slogans (for
example, ‘Yankees Go Home’, or ‘Quem Matou Herzog’
(‘Who Killed Herzog?’), in reference to the suspicious
death in a Brazilian prison of the journalist Wladimir
Herzog) onto banknotes or returnable Coca-Cola bottles,
and put them back into circulation.
Radical Software
Radical Software was a journal founded in 1969 by Beryl
Korot, Phyllis Gershuny and Ira Schneider and published by
the New York video collective Raindance. It became the
focus of what its founders described as the alternative
television movement, a network of video collectives, artists
and activists with the ambition to use the emerging
technology of video in the service of the creation of new
social relationships. ‘They imagined a world in which the
contest of ideas and values could take place freely and
openly, outside of the existing institutional framework and
in active opposition to the worldview constructed and
maintained by broadcast commercial TV. They proposed
not only a re-ordered power structure, but also a new
information order in which the very idea of hierarchical
power structure might be transformed or even eliminated.’
A complete archive of the 11 editions of Radical Software,
plus David Ross’s introductory essay from which this
quotation is taken, is maintained online by Davidson
Gigliotti at www.radicalsoftware.org.
The Kabouters
The Kabouters (the name means ‘gnomes’ in Dutch) were
a group of Dutch artist-activists with anarchist leanings,
founded by former members of the Provos; the Provos
were a group of counter-cultural provocateurs and
marijuana aficionados formed in 1965 and disbanded in
1967, who became most famous for distributing free ‘white
bicycles’ around Amsterdam, though their actions and their
programme went far beyond this and were an influence on
the San Francisco Diggers, among others. The Proclamation
of the Orange Free State was distributed as an issue of the
Kabouters’ poster-journal and, despite the unconventional
nature of their goals, the Kabouters campaigned
successfully as a formal political party; five of their
members, including Provo co-founder Roel van Duijn, were
elected to the Amsterdam City Council in June 1970.
Call to the Artists of Latin America
This manifesto was published following a meeting on Latin
American figurative art held at the Casa de las Americas,
La Havana, 27 May 1972 where it was signed by 34 artists
and art critics. It took the form of a poster intended to be
placed in any exhibition of Latin American art throughout
the continent.
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Art and Social Change
VALIE EXPORT
Austrian performance artist VALIE EXPORT published
this manifesto in 1972. VALIE EXPORT’s work is further
discussed by Marina Vishmidt in her commissioned essay.
Brigadas Ramona Parra
The Brigadas Ramona Parra (Ramona Parra Brigades)
began as groups of street artists and political mural
painters formed by the youth wing of the Chilean
Communist Party in 1967, and were most active between
1967 and 1973. They supported the 1970 ‘Popular Unity’
government of Salvador Allende until its overthrow in
a 1973 coup d’etat. The text presented here is translated
from the BRP’s own journal, La Revista BRP; the BRP are
still officially in existence, and maintain a website at
www.colectivobrp.cl.
On 20 October 1973, a group of Latin American and
American artists recreated a Ramona Parra Brigade mural
from the Rio Mapocho, Santiago in SoHo, New York to
‘condemn the junta’s repression of the arts and draw
attention to the atrocities taking place in Chile’. The BRP
murals had been ‘systematically destroyed and painted
over during the first weeks of the military regime’ (Lucy
Lippard, Get the Message? A Decade of Art for Social Change,
New York: E.P. Dutton 1984, p.45).
‘During the Allende campaign of 1969–70, painted
walls emerged as an essential communication link
between the Left and the masses. … When the Ramona
Parra Brigades of the Communist Party began to draw
political symbols to complement the verbal messages,
a new style began to evolve, and when Allende was
elected this new style flourished on every available
surface throughout the country. …
A common imagery and a vocabulary derived from
Cubism developed into complex, organically evolved
metaphor. Whole walls were transformed into a series
of intertwined symbols … A fist became a flag became
a dove became hair became a face, and so on. …
The gap between art and life, between art and people,
was being closed. That process has stopped now.
The junta has begun an “ideological struggle to try
to wipe out the effects of three years of left-wing
government on the consciousness of the working class
and the very poor”. …’(Eva Cockroft, ‘The Death of a
Mural Movement’, Art in America, January/February 1974,
pp.35–37)
The Third World Filmmakers Meeting
The Third World Filmmakers Meeting took place
in Algiers on 5–14 December 1973.
Solvognen
Solvognen are a radical street theatre group associated
with the ‘freetown’ of Christiania in Copenhagen. Their
1970s actions – well-publicised in Denmark but little
known outside – included the organisation of the Father
Christmas Army, a group of around 150 performers all
dressed as Father Christmas whose week-long street
festival of altruism and entertainment culminated in
anti-capitalist protests and a factory occupation; and
a performance resisting a celebration of the American
Bicentennial held at Rebild in Denmark.
Augusto Boal
Theatre director Augusto Boal was exiled in 1971 by the
Brazilian military government for the political nature of his
cultural activism. He published his best-known work, The
Theatre of the Oppressed, while working in Argentina in 1973.
Zoran Popovi´c
Serbian artist Zoran Popovi´c originally produced the text
‘For Self-Management Art’ as a poster for the Student
Cultural Centre Gallery in Belgrade in 1975. His manifesto
was clearly primarily directed at the cultural bureaucracy of
the Yugoslav state, but Popovi´c was, at the time, working in
an international context – his film Struggle in New York
(1976) was made in collaboration with members of the
group Art & Language – and his text might be read as having
a wider application.
Sture Johannesson and The Sword is Mightier than
the Swede?
This is Sture Johannesson’s account of the events
surrounding the closure of the exhibition ‘On Germany –
In Time’, which was to have been held at Kulturhuset in
Stockholm in 1976. Throughout his career, Johannesson
has been concerned with the gap between the social
democratic rhetoric of artistic freedom put forward by the
Swedish state, and the reality of state censorship which set
political limits on that freedom. Johannesson’s homepage
can currently be found at www.sturejohannesson.com.
Bonnie Sherk and The Farm
Bonnie Sherk was a successful performance artist on the
Californian art scene when she became the prime mover
behind the Crossroads Community, also known as The Farm, a
community project in San Francisco that she conceived of
as a ‘life-scale environmental performance-sculpture’.
Several acres of land underneath the Army Street freeway
interchange in San Francisco were taken over and turned
into a community garden, while a former dairy building
became a farmhouse that doubled as a schoolroom and
performance art space. The Farm’s community convinced
the non-profit Trust for Public Land to buy the site they
occupied and donate it to the city, but the city government,
while accepting the land, opposed The Farm’s existence.
Following a legal battle that lasted several years, the
surviving shadow of the project’s utopian aspirations
currently takes the form of an anodyne landscaped park, a
few allotments, and a block of commercial live/work
studios. Bonnie Sherk continues to work on community
projects under the name A Living Library, and maintains a
website at www.alivinglibrary.org.
Jaudon & Kozloff
This article was originally published in issue 4 of the New
York-based quarterly journal Heresies: A Feminist Publication
on Art and Politics in 1978. The theme of the issue was
‘Women’s Traditional Arts: The Politics of Aesthetics’.
Heresies was founded in 1977 and produced by a collective
that included Patsy Beckert, Joan Braderman, Mary Beth
Edelson, Harmony Hammond, Elizabeth Hess, Joyce
Kozloff, Arlene Ladden, Lucy Lippard, Mary Miss, Marty
Pottenger, Miriam Shapiro, Joan Snyder, Elke Solomon,
Pat Steir, May Stevens, Michelle Stuart, Susana Torre,
Elizabeth Weatherford, Sally Webster and Nina Yankowitz.
Adrian Piper
Adrian Piper is a Conceptual artist, performer and writer
on philosophy. ‘Ideology, Confrontation and Political SelfAwareness’ is an essay whose reflexive form links it to
Conceptual art and whose focus on the personal as political
connects it to the development of the feminist critique of
language and ideology. Piper has said that ‘I like to think
that I’m attacking the problem of xenophobia from two
directions simultaneously: from the direction of
interpersonal and immediate experience in my artwork,
and from the direction of the very broad underpinnings of
xenophobia in my philosophy work’. (Interview with
Maurice Berger, in Grant Kester (ed.), Art, Activism and
Oppositionality: Essays from Afterimage, Durham: Duke
University Press, 1998.)
Piper’s performance art practice of the 1970s often
involved interventions in public space, or confrontational
approaches to the relationship between performer and
audience in more conventional settings. The publication of
this essay came shortly before the second of Piper’s two
self-imposed periods of ‘hibernation’ from the art world.
The Docklands Photo-Murals
The Docklands Community Poster Project was founded in
1981 by Loraine Leeson and Peter Dunn in response to the
concerns of East London communities over an extensive
proposed re-development programme. The newly elected
Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher
designated the land surrounding the working docks, from
St Katherine’s Dock east of Tower Bridge downriver to
the Royal Docks, as an Urban Development Corporation.
This effectively removed local control from an area crossing
five London boroughs, with the aim of transferring it into
private ownership. However, this land, now known as
the London Docklands, not only incorporated docks and
warehouses, but was also home and workplace to 56,000
people. Historically, up to this time the communities of
East London had been poor but politically active. They
were not against development, they just wanted it to
also meet their own needs. A struggle ensued…
The artists, who had previously been working closely
with local trade unions around health issues, were
approached to produce a poster alerting local people to
what was to come. Following a period of consultation with
tenants and action groups, however, it soon became clear
that the proposed poster was not enough. Posters were
indeed wanted, but ‘large ones’ to match the scale of
the proposals – also design work to help with individual
campaigns, documentation of the area before it changed
and a record of each battle as it was fought. In addition,
there was a need for easily accessible information that
examined key issues such as housing and specific
development sites in more depth. (This summary is taken
from the archive of the Docklands Community Poster
Project, online at www.cspace.org.uk/cspace/archive/
docklands/dock_arch.htm).
Peter Kennard
Peter Kennard studied at the Slade School of Fine Art
in London in the 1960s, but gave up painting in favour
of producing photomontages inspired by the German
Dadaist John Heartfield. His work has appeared in many
publications, from The Economist to the Workers Press
Notes
471
(the journal of the Socialist Labour League) and many
of the images he produced for the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament were widely used and often reinterpreted
by grassroots campaigners. Peter Kennard’s homepage
can be found at www.peterkennard.com.
Laibach
The rock group Laibach, founded in 1980, form part of
Neue Slowenische Kunst, a political art collective formed
in Yugoslavia in 1984 which also includes the artists’ group
IRWIN and the theatre group originally known as the
Scipion Nasice Sisters Theater. Laibach’s strategic and often
uncomfortable embrace of totalitarian rhetoric and imagery
stops just short of open parody and the groups successful
recording career includes several hits. NSK are currently
presenting themselves as an independent micronation
under the slogan ‘Art is fanaticism that demands diplomacy’.
They maintain a website at www.nskstate.com.
Orange Alternative
Inspired by the Provos and the Kabouters, Polish student
activist and art history graduate Waldemar Frydrych
wrote a ‘Manifesto of Socialist Surrealism’ in 1981 and
began painting obscure graffiti, featuring badly-drawn
gnomes, at places on the walls of buildings in Wroclaw
where anti-government slogans had been erased. By
1983, Frydrych’s interventions and ideas had become
the kernel of the Orange Alternative, a movement that
attempted to circumvent the Polish communist state’s
ban on unsanctioned political activity by organising
around implausible events. The flyers translated here
are representative of the 1980s actions of the Orange
Alternative, with their insistence on the ‘non-political’
nature of the events coupled with calculatedly absurd
propositions for action. By 1989, Orange Alternative
actions were held across Poland, and were attracting
thousands of participants. The website of the Orange
Alternative, which includes a history of the movement,
can be found at www.pomaranczowa_alternatywa.
republika.pl.
Desiderio Navarro
In 1989, at the height of the censorship crisis (during
which several shows had been closed down, or never
permitted to open because of political content which
was deemed to be offensive, counter-revolutionary or
irredeemably ambiguous), dozens of artists got together
to organise one more exhibition. All the works would be
abstract – ‘an art without problems’. In fact, some in the
group argued for not only abstraction but geometric
abstraction – ‘because it is asemantic, and could therefore
make even more plain the hostile interpretive delirium’.
For various reasons this formal display of withdrawal was
itself withdrawn, and in frustration and also as a ‘final
“conceptualist” attempt to save (and “deconstruct”, at
the same time) the original conceptual gesture of the
exhibition of abstract-art-in-protest’, Cuban art critic
Desiderio Navarro published an exhibition ‘text’ in which
the body of the text was also withdrawn, leaving only
the footnotes. A false header indicated that the exhibition
had in fact taken place – a final withdrawal from the
withdrawal of the withdrawal of the political critique
which had been silenced.
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Art and Social Change
The ‘Retroabstraction’ project was a watershed
moment. A few months later, in September 1989, and
after the censorship of the ‘Castillo de la Fuerza’ project (a
cycle of exhibitions that was intended to reopen the
dialogue between artists and Power) Cuban art simply
‘dedicated itself to baseball.’ Fed up with the wave of
censorships and veiled prohibitions, artists and critics
organised a big baseball game according to the proposition:
‘if we can’t make art, we will play ball’. The dynamic
of withdrawal was played out (as it were), in all of its
cynical, aggressive, sarcastic, mocking, delegitimizing
intertextuality. Taking no chances, State Security arranged
to have a game of their own going on in the next field over.
(This summary taken from unpublished notes for a talk by
Rachel Weiss entitled ‘Some Notes on Withdrawal’. Weiss
is a Professor in the Department of Arts Administration
and Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For
more background to Navarro’s text, see Weiss’s article
‘After the Storm in Cuba: A Case of Withdrawal’, Social
Identities, vol.13 no.2, March 2007, pp.183–199). It should
be noted that certain references in Navarro’s text are to
fictitious articles. The references in note 3 reflect ‘hardline’
Cuban Communist Party viewpoints but are imagined.
The argument in note 4 is real, but attributed to a fictitious
author. Likewise, the reviews cited in note 5. Note 8 is a
reference to Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose
(San Diego: Harcourt, 1983).
Border Arts Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo
The Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo was
founded in 1984 by David Avalos, Victor Ochoa, Isaac
Artenstein, Jude Eberhart, Sara-Jo Berman, Guillermo
Gomez-Peña and Michael Schnorr as the ‘active visual arm’
of the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park, San Diego,
California. As a changing collective of artists, the BAW/TAF
has produced or participated in a great many events,
including panel discussions, clandestine illegal border
crossings, mural painting, video production, education
programmes and street protests. In the words of Coco
Fusco, the BAW/TAF ‘wanted to bring the border down,
explore the area as a zone of intercultural exchange, point
to human rights violations, and theorise a border sensibility
using the notion of the deterritorialized undocumented
Mexican as a trope.’ (See http://www.nettime.org/ListsArchives/nettime-l-0108/msg00102.html)
Gran Fury
Gran Fury were an artists’ collective producing agit-prop
around issues in the AIDS crisis. They were formed in early
1988 in New York and worked continuously until 1994. The
original recording of this talk, along with the rest of the
Gran Fury archive, is held at the New York Public Library.
Rebellion on Level p
The park demanded by the Hafenrandverein opened in
2005. The Park Fiction project is further discussed by
Marina Vishmidt in her commissioned essay.
RevArte and Popotla
RevArte (RevolutionArte), an art collective based in San
Diego and Tijuana, collaborated with the community of
Popotla to protest the effect on the small fishing village
of Twentieth Century Fox’s ‘specially designed studio in
Popotla, a tiny coastal fishing village just south of Tijuana in
Baja California. Some called it a Hollywood maquiladora, a
description usually applied to US factories located in
Mexico to take advantage of low operating costs.’
(Wired, 8 July 1998, www.wired.com)
Tiqqun
A pdf of the original text in French, Comment Faire
is available online at http://infokiosques.net/spip.
php?article127, various translations into English can
also be found at http://info.interactivist.net
Ip Gim
The Feminist Art Collective Ip Gim are based in Seoul,
South Korea. The text translated here was released
after the disruption of their public art exhibition and
performance event at the Jongmyo Confucian shrine in
Seoul. The shrine is a memorial to the medieval Joseon
dynasty that remains symbolic of the conservative values
of traditional Confucian social organisation.
Colectivo Situaciones
Colectivo Situaciones is a group of ‘militant researchers’
formed in Buenos Aires in the late 1990s. Their homepage
can be found at www.situaciones.org.
Ricardo Dominguez/Critical Art Ensemble/Electronic
Disturbance Theatre
Ricardo Dominguez is a former member of Critical Art
Ensemble (1987–1994) and a cofounder of the Electronic
Disturbance Theatre, who pioneered the practical
development of what Dominguez calls ‘electronic civil
disobedience’. CAE’s books The Electronic Disturbance
(1994), Electronic Civil Disobedience (1996) and Digital
Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media (2004) are
published by Autonomedia and available online at www.
critical-art.net/books/index.html. Ricardo Dominguez’s
homepage can be found at http://www.thing.net/~rdom/.
Brian Holmes
Brian Holmes is an art and cultural critic based in Paris.
He is the author of Hieroglyphs of the Future (Zagreb:
WHW, 2002) and Unleashing the Collective Phantoms
(New York: Autonomedia, 2007) and contributes to
the journals and online platforms Nettime, Transform,
Multitudes, Springerin, and Brumaria. His recent work
can be found at http://brianholmes.wordpress.com.
Jeon Yongseok/Flying City
The South Korean artists’ group Flying City were founded
in 2001 by Jeon Yongseok, Jang Jongkwan and Kim Gisoo
as a research organisation dedicated to creating an urbanist
history and critique of the development of Seoul. Their
website can be found at www.flyingcity.kr.
Anthony Davies, Stephan Dillemuth, Jakob Jakobsen and
There is No Alternative: THE FUTURE IS SELF-ORGANISED
Anthony Davies is a London-based writer, organiser
and independent researcher. Stephan Dillemuth is a
Munich-based artist who runs the website Society of
Control, www.societyofcontrol.com. Jakob Jakobsen is
a co-founder of the Copenhagen Free University, www.
copenhagenfreeuniversity.dk. Their collective text,
There is No Alternative: THE FUTURE IS SELF-ORGANISED,
is a manifesto for independent cultural organisation that
draws on anarchist principles, written in reaction to the
increasing alliance between corporate capital and state art
institutions in the European art world, and in recognition
of an existing counter-movement away from the formal art
world that has characterised a new field of oppositional
cultural practice.
Hito Steyerl
Hito Steyerl is a filmmaker and theorist based in Berlin.
Her film works include Germany and Identity (1994),
November (2004) and Lovely Andrea (2007).
Raqs Media Collective
Raqs Media Collective was formed in 1992 by Jeebesh
Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta.
Raqs describe themselves as a collective of media
practitioners that works in art, new media, film-making,
photography, media theory, research, writing, criticism
and curation.
Raqs Media Collective was the co-initiator of Sarai:
The New Media Initiative, www.sarai.net, founded in 2001,
a programme of interdisciplinary research and practice
on media, city space and urban culture at the Centre for
the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. Members of
the collective are resident at the Sarai Media Lab, Delhi,
where they work on projects interpreting the city and
urban experience; make cross-media works; collaborate
on the development of software; design and conduct
workshops; administer discussion lists; edit publications;
write, research and coordinate several research projects
and public activities of Sarai.
Notes
473
B I B L I OG R A PH Y
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474
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the Cultural Politics of Utopia, 1965–1968, Cornell University
Phd thesis, 1997
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to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era
of Globalization, New York: Verso, 2002
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Bauhaus-Archive Museum fur Gestaltung, 1990
John Heartfield and Kurt Tucholsky, Deutschland
Deutschland Über Alles (trans. Anne Halley),
Amherst: UMP, 1972
Christopher Dunn, Brutality Garden: Tropicália and
the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture, Chapel Hill:
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Sam Durant (ed.), Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art
of Emory Douglas, New York: Rizzoli, 2007
Okwui Enwezor and Olu Oguibe, The Short Century:
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the Bauhaus in Weimar: The Ideals and Artistic Theories of its
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2005
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de la Universidad Tecnica del Estado, 1971
J.B. Glasier, William Morris and the Early Days of
the Socialist Movement, London: Longmans Green, 1921
Steve Golin, The Fragile Bridge: Paterson Silk Strike, 1913,
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John Heartfield, Photomontages of the Nazi Period,
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INDEX
Agar, Eileen 114
Andrade, Oswald De 94, 98, 466, 473
Atelier Populaire 27, 164, 165,
468, 473
Avant-Garde Artists Group 157, 160,
161, 469
Bax, E. Belfort 40, 464
Berg, Peter 467, 468
Black Mask 130, 131, 132, 134,
467, 474
Boal, Augusto 19, 213, 470, 473
The Border Art Workshop/
Taller De Arte Fronterizo 270, 271,
272, 274, 275, 471, 473
Breton, André 16, 185, 405, 466, 473
Brigadas Ramona Parra 17, 204, 469
British Surrealist Group 26, 109,
110, 467
Browne, Felicia 108, 466
Cant, James 467
Crane, Walter 44, 45, 46, 53, 395, 406
Colectivo Situaciones 313, 356,
472, 473
Courbet, Gustave 12, 13, 15, 25, 35,
36, 38, 386, 387, 388, 396, 397, 398,
405, 406, 407, 464, 473, 475
Davies, Anthony 351, 378, 472
Davies, Hugh Sykes 114
Davis, Ronald G. 17, 143, 151, 467,
468, 473, 476
Dawson, D. Norman 114
Debord, Guy 19, 121, 386, 387, 388,
441, 454, 467
Dillemuth, Stephan 378, 472
van Doesburg, Theo 76, 404,
465, 473
Dominguez, Ricardo 319, 330, 472
Douglas, Emory 17, 166, 168, 169, 170,
171, 468, 474
Duncombe, Stephen 319, 327
Dunn, Peter 245, 246, 247, 248, 470
Evans, Merlyn 114
EXPORT, VALIE 23, 202, 447, 448,
448, 449, 450, 451, 452, 453, 456,
457, 459, 469, 474
Fichot, Michel Charles 25
Flying City 369, 376, 377, 473
Fusco, Coco 271, 272, 471
Gascoyne, David 114
Gershuny, Phyllis 188, 469
Goldfinger, Erno 114
Gomez-Pena, Guillermo 271
Gonzàlez, ‘Mone’ 204
Graham, G. 114
Gran Fury 28, 276, 277, 278, 280, 322,
324, 419, 471
Grogan, Emmett 468
Moore, Henry 26, 110, 114
Morris, William 7, 12, 13, 33, 35, 39,
40, 47, 53, 395, 404, 406, 407, 464
Nash, Paul 114
Navarro, Desiderio 260, 261, 267, 471
Nesline, Michael 277
Orange Alternative 255, 257, 471
Park Fiction 32, 457
Penrose, Roland 114
Péret, Benjamin 16, 90, 466
Pickens, William 74, 465
Piper, Adrian 241, 470, 475
Popovi´c , Zoran 216, 470
Raqs Media Collective 340, 341,
437, 472
Raunig, Gerald 7, 23, 384, 386, 387,
391, 462, 479
Read, Herbert 114, 235
Reed, John 13, 57, 86, 88, 464,
466, 476
RevArte 31, 290, 292, 471
Rodchenko, Alexander 67, 402, 403,
404, 441, 465, 475
Rohe, Mies van der 15, 106, 402, 466
Ryan, Paul 191, 475
The San Francisco Diggers 18, 146,
151, 152, 468, 475
Schäfer, Christoph 32, 283, 446,
457, 459
Shepard, Benjamin 319, 322, 474
Sherk, Bonnie 18, 29, 227, 228,
229, 470
Silvianna 179, 413
Situationist International 17, 121, 125,
128, 386, 387, 454, 467, 474, 475,
476
Skene, Cathy 283
Solvognen 19, 30, 210, 211, 469, 475
Stepanova, Varvara 69, 403, 465, 473
Steyerl, Hito 332, 472, 476
Strijbosch, Jan 125
The Surrealist Group 16, 91, 92, 466
Szczuka, Mieczysław 78, 465
Tatlin, Vladmir 90, 133, 402, 403, 404,
441, 462, 465
Tiqqun 297, 476
Toche, Jean 177, 176, 179, 180, 413,
469, 474
Trevellyan, Julian 114, 467
Tucholsky, Kurt 99, 100, 102, 103, 104,
466, 474, 476
Vaneigem, Raoul 121, 125, 387
Viénet, René 125
Vishmidt, Marina 7, 23, 447, 463, 469,
471, 479
Youngblood, Gene 190, 476
Zolghadr, Tirdad 7, 23, 440, 463
AC K NOW L E DG E M E NT S
Afterall is a research and publishing group based at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design,
University of the Arts London. This publication has been produced by Afterall and published by
Tate Publishing.
Editors
Will Bradley and Charles Esche
Series Editors (Afterall, London)
Charles Esche and Mark Lewis
Managing Editor
Caroline Woodley
Editorial Assistant and Picture Researcher
Gaia Alessi
The editors would like to thank the authors and artists for permitting us to reproduce their
work in this book, with special thanks to Geeta Kapur, Lucy Lippard, John Milner, Gerald Raunig,
Marina Vishmidt and Tirdad Zolgdahr.
For their advice regarding archives and sources we would also like to thank Pavel Büchler,
Hyunjin Kim, Lars Bang Larsen, Lynda Morris, Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan, Rob Tufnell,
Rachel Weiss, Dominic Willsdon and Magdalena Ziolkowska.
In addition we would like to thank all the staff at Afterall, Central Saint Martins, Tate Publishing
and the Van Abbemuseum who have contributed their time and support to this publication and
to associated talks, exhibitions and events. In particular we would like to thank Ruth Ewan,
Pablo Lafuente and Lucy Steeds at Afterall, Chris Wainwright at Central Saint Martins,
James Attlee, Sarah Brown, Judith Severne and Roger Thorp at Tate Publishing and Inge Börsje,
Phillip van den Bossche, Esra Sarigedik and Theo Wajon at the Van Abbemuseum.
This project has been carried out within the framework of transform.eipcp.net. The publication
was made possible through the support of the British Academy, the Van Abbemuseum
and the Culture 2000 programme of the European Union.
This book reflects the views only of the authors. The European Commission cannot
be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.