Creative Dissidence: A Workshop on Art and Activism

In 2011, the Arab uprisings, the anti-austerity protests in Greece and Spain, and the Occupy Movement in North America mobilized broad sectors of society in opposition to anti-democratic systems of political and economic power. These protests have led to the construction of discursive spaces in which the interests and rights of the population—and not only those subjects whom the state defines as citizens—can find expression in a new language of democratic participation. Rather than fixate on the direct political implications of these demands, this workshop aims to consider their aesthetic and cultural dimensions.

How do the collective actions and images of these movements work to transform the speaking positions assigned to individuals in established modes of political discourse? What parts have media, both old and new, played in producing these emergent forms of democracy?  How do traditional forms of protest, centering on the physical occupation and re-purposing of public space, overlap with the strategies of digital dissent opened up by the Internet? How do we account for the alliances formed between artists, grass-roots activists, citizen journalists, students and other groups who are now claiming their right to the polis? The workshop will bring together several UK-based artists and art historians for a critical discussion of recent events and their historical precedents.

Rather than simply assume a neat overlap or happy marriage between contemporary artistic production and activism, this workshop aims to examine some of the problems raised by artists and institutions which now seek to align themselves with activist groups or actions. As Jakob Schillinger suggested in his polemical Artforum review of the last Berlin Biennial, "Practices such as those of Occupy, Mosireen, and Voina exist and are visible and effective independently of the art world. What, then—to paraphrase the curators—can the biennial do for such practices?"

The list of confirmed participants are: Irit Rogoff, TJ Demos, Gavin Grindon, Philipp Kleinmichel, and James Boaden. A catered lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to chad.elias@york.ac.uk