Workshop: Widerstand | Resistance - Ästhetische und Politische Perspektiven | Aesthetic and Political Perspectives

When: Wednesday, 15. January 2020 | Details see programme. Where: Depot Wien, Breitegasse 3, 1070 Vienna. International workshop with Tom Vandeputte (Amsterdam/Hannover), Mauricio González Rozo (Frankfurt), Sara Alonso Gómez (Bern), Howard Caygill (London), Nassima Sahraoui (Frankfurt) & Oliver Marchart (Vienna). Organised by Oliver Marchart, Politische Theorie, University of Vienna & Nassima Sahraoi, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main.

Workshop Theme:

The protests that spread across the globe most recently, such as the ones in Chile, Hong Kong, Beirut, Fridays  for  Future  etc.,  stand in  a  long  tradition  of  resistance  movements  that  span  the  realms  of  politics  and  aesthetics  from  disputes  about  the  ‘right  to  resist’  to  actual  revolts  and revolutions, from the uprising of workers to the general strike, from barricades to protests to artistic activism. All   social struggles of past and present times even crystallise around theories and practices of  resistance.  Resistance  comprises  moments  of  rejection  and  refusal,  of  persistence,  and  of  abstention. It carries the potential to withstand the ruling structures and institutions of oppression and, furthermore, to irritate and disrupt power relations that demand and command a specific way of  behaviour  or  action. Likewise,  resistance  also  bears  hopes  and  expectations  for  a  ‘positive’  change in society, a transformation of our political system, and the epistemological framework we live in. What  exactly  do  we  have  in  mind  when  we  discuss this highly  overdetermined  concept  of  resistance?  What  actually is  resistance,  both,  in  politics  and  in  aesthetics?  How  can  we  read  theconcept and grasp the political and artistic practices of it? 

The workshop will explore the limits and potentials of the relation between resistance, politics, and aesthetics from different perspectives, spanning political theory, philosophy, aesthetics and visual arts, and curatorial studies, literature and literary theory.

When: Wednesday, 15. January 2020 | Details see programme
Where: Depot Wien, Breitegasse 3, 1070 Vienna

Programme
  • INTRODUCTION

    • 9:45h Oliver Marchart (Wien), Nassima Sahraoui (Frankfurt): Resistant Perspectives
  • I. HISTORY & POLITICS OF RESISTANCE

    • 10-11h Tom Vandeputte (Amsterdam/Hannover): Pessimism and the Political
    • 11-12h Nassima Sahraoui (Frankfurt): Time to Resist. A Glimpse into the History of Ideas
  • Coffee Break

    • 12:30-13:30h Mauricio González Rozo (Frankfurt): Political Difference and Res(is)tance: On “The Dance of the Remaining”

  • Lunch

  • II. THE RESISTANCE OF AESTHETICS

    • 15-16h Oliver Marchart (Vienna): Conflictual Aesthetics
    • 16-17h Sara Alonso Gómez (Bern): Artistic Disobedience in Global Times: Rethinking Strategies, Operations, Processes
  • Coffee Break
  • III. THE ACTUALITY OF RESISTANCE

    • 17:30-18:30h Final Discussion “Resistance Today?”

  • KEYNOTE

    • 19-20:30h Howard Caygill (London): Escalating Resistance

Programme (PDF) | Facebook Event