[-empyre-] an 'ethico-aesthetic paradigm' - in France and Argentina

Fri May 16 07:24:59 EST 2008

Very good doubt dear Brian!
Some days I have the same one.
but... for sure, like said Andreas Siekmann in an interview
with economic students: "Are there, for you, enough images in the world?"
I must say: no!
we are -in this intensive dialogue- thinking about this,
and this is a very good step for create them.
all the best,
eduardo

Eduardo Molinari / Archivo Caminante
Aramburu 880, Dto.1 (1640) Martínez
Provincia de Buenos Aires – Argentina
0541 1 47 98 48 35

--- El mié 14-may-08, brian whitener <iwaslike at hotmail.com> escribió:

> De: brian whitener <iwaslike at hotmail.com>
> Asunto: RE: [-empyre-] an 'ethico-aesthetic paradigm' - in France and Argentina
> Para: "soft_skinned_space" <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Fecha: miércoles, 14 de mayo de 2008, 8:49 pm
> hi tim, brian, et al,
> 
> tim: i hear what you are saying. i think it's important
> not to lose sight of those histories. i'm sure brian
> would agree. and i wish i knew more about them. and
> obviously it would be great 
> 
> the caveat: i'm going to speak from a really ignorant
> place in the next sentence. personally, i'm super
> divided right now on the issue of listservs, the interwebs,
> etc. honestly, i feel like we're in a different
> historical moment. and that the potencia of those forms has
> been eclipsed a bit. ( ..like that opening/event has been
> subsummed...)
> 
> i think that's also why i feel like CAE (to set up the
> argument via an example), while i respect, support, and
> love their work, is not enough for this moment. maybe
> that's the difference brian was trying to bring out. 
> 
> i feel the catastrophe... and i feel like it's calling
> for a direct address. i know it's calling for a move
> beyond whatever happened in the 90s. do i doubt that
> "art" can provide an adequate address? i do. but
> that also make me feel light, like knowing that when you
> encoutner resistence you are doing something right.
> 
> b
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 21:32:07 -0400
> > To: brian.holmes at wanadoo.fr;
> empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > From: tcm1 at cornell.edu
> > Subject: Re: [-empyre-] an 'ethico-aesthetic
> paradigm' - in France and 	Argentina
> > CC: 
> > 
> > >Brian,
> > 
> > I'm concerned that it's a little presumptuous
> to assume that activist 
> > artists were not also activating politically in the
> nineties and well 
> > before, whether in demonstrations, alternative
> political 
> > organizations, or even in mainstream organizations
> such as 
> > universities and political parties  (I suppose what
> you call middle 
> > class organizations) whether against racially
> organized political 
> > systems, for feminism, for AIDS activism, against
> globalism, against 
> > international human trade, against war, for the
> environment, etc.
> > 
> > Of course activism might involve some risk of getting
> arrested or 
> > being beaten by the police.  But many of us who have
> spent years of 
> > our lives  being beaten by and threatened on and off
> the streets  by 
> > the police also might have come to understand the
> value of additional 
> > reflective critical practice (in contrast to simple
> reactive 
> > action--which is certainly necessary and justified on
> occasion) which 
> > also can entail not only the traversing of class and
> comfort 
> > boundaries but also engagement in activities of
> critical spatial 
> > practice and conceptual activism whose aim might be to
> question the 
> > very notions of the comfortable "middle
> class" that underlie your 
> > assumptions.
> > 
> > Without wishing to distract us from the addditional
> issues posed by 
> > this week's -empyre- guests, I wish to caution
> against the 
> > assumptions of your premises that this is an all or
> nothing equation 
> > and to counter your suggestion that activist artists
> of the nineties 
> > somehow failed to be politically active while also
> being critically 
> > reflective.  The reason that I questioned the
> avant-gardist logic of 
> > your proposition was because of my concern that it
> carried with it an 
> > implied assumption that we can progress only  by
> looking forward to 
> > "real conflict" rather than backward to
> artististic circles for whom 
> > politics was retrograde.    Is it a coincidence that
> Steve Kurtz of 
> > Critical Art Ensemble (active since the mid-nineties)
> has faced up to 
> > 5 years in prison for his critical art practice that
> clearly rubbed 
> > American Homeland Security forces the wrong way?  Or
> what about the 
> > artistic activism in the early nineties of Teiji
> Furuhashi of Dumb 
> > Type who died of AIDS before being able to perform his
> response to 
> > the AIDS pandemic in the performance, "S/N,"
> which his troupe took to 
> > Brazil?  Dumb Type understood itself to engage in
> political activism 
> > by extending  its audiences "to an ever wide
> range of people, to 
> > connect theater and festival staff, AIDS-concerned
> groups, and 
> > gay/lesbian communities."  Or what about the
> recent bravery of the 
> > performance artist Pippa Bacca who was raped and
> murdered while 
> > rather quietly hitchhiking  to Israel with the
> "Brides on Tour" 
> > project in an appeal for peace?
> > 
> > Although the streets of France might have been quieter
> in the 
> > nineties than they were in the sixties or more
> recently,I suspect 
> > that you'll agree that similar commitments to
> sexual and political 
> > activism were indeed important to the critical
> community of artists 
> > and theoreticians.  I simply don't want us to lose
> sight of this 
> > history nor to downplay the radical significance and
> critical lessons 
> > of so many of these earlier interventions for the sake
> of delivering 
> > deserved credit to current activist projects.  Call it
> the academic 
> > in me!
> > 
> > All my best,
> > 
> > Tim
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > _______________________________________________
> > empyre forum
> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> 
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