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®evolution

31.01.2011 |

®evolution

A PANEL DISCUSSION UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THE TRANSLATION OF GERALD RAUNIG'S:
ART AND REVOLUTION
Artistic Activism in the Long 20th Century

TUESDAY, 8th of February 2011 at 6.00 p.m., Socialni center Ljubljana

Gerald Raunig has written an alternative art history of the "long twentieth century" from the Paris Commune of 1871 to the turbulent counter-globalization protests in Genoa in 2001. Meticulously moving from the Situationists and Sergei Eisenstein to Viennese Actionism and the PublixTheatreCaravan, Art and Revolution takes on the history of revolutionary transgressions and optimistically charts an emergence from its tales of tragic failure and unequivocal disaster. By eloquently applying Deleuze and Guattari's idea of the "machine," Raunig extends the poststructuralist theory of revolution through to the explosive nexus of art and activism.

As hopeful as it is incisive, Art and Revolution encourages a new generation of artists and thinkers to refuse to participate in the tired prescriptions of marketplace and authority and instead create radical new methods of engagement. Raunig develops an indispensable, contemporary conception of political change--a conception that transcends the outmoded formulations of insurrection and resistance. Too much blood and ink has been shed for the art machines and the revolutionary machines to remain separate. He suggests their union as a new field and a possibility of achieving their common goal.

We therefore organised a panel discussion entitled ®evolution, which will accompany the publication of the translation into Slovene. With the panel discussion, we want to encourage a reflection on the ways of establishing autonomous zones and on their operation and meaning in the context of neo-liberalism, which we face in our country on a daily basis. What positions in relation to power do autonomous zones proceed from? In view of their specific positioning in relation to power, how do they preserve their autonomy? What dilemmas do they face? And what is their vision?

At the panel discussion, we will thus confront especially the views and experiences of the representatives of various initiatives based on their own practice and the theoretical theses from Art and Revolution.

The panel discussion will feature:
Gerald Raunig, a theoretician and activist. He currently works at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (Departement Kunst und Medien, Vertiefung Theorie) and at the eipcp (European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies). He is a member of the editorial board of transversal (http://transversal.eipcp.net/) and the Austrian journal for radical democratic cultural politics Kulturrisse (http://www.igkultur.at/kulturrisse). He wrote several books. Among them: Art and Revolution, Art and Contemporary Critical Practice, A Thousand Machines, etc.

Andrej Kurnik, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, Chair of Theoretical Political Science. He is an activist at Social centre Rog and IWW (The Industrial Workers of the World).

Andreja Vezovnik is employed at the Faculty of Social Sciences as a researcher and teaching assistant. Her research focuses on the theory and analysis of discourses, the politics of identification, political representation and political subjectification. Her empirical work consists in critically analysing the media and political discourse. In the performing arts field, she works in the framework of the Bitnamuun physical theatre group (KUD Ponor). She is the representative of Prekerni incubator (PI).

Gregor Kosi,
is a poet and in his free time also the director of Pekarna - magdalenske mre¾e. Fed by his studies in Sociology of Culture and History, trained in initiatives for free- and community media, public space and political reasoning, and screaming in punk bands and experimental sound transformations. The last years he is obssesed by the noise of contemporanities.

Tja¹a Pureber, political scientist, PhD student in Sociology of Culture and journalist. She is a representative of Radical Education Collective.

Andrej ©kufca, the representative of the Boks project, an association of students, independent individuals, NGOs and non-profit organisations. The project examines the questions of autonomy, self-organisation, critical reflection of the educational and art systems and society.

Matev¾ Kladnik, is a political science student and an active member of the Polituss association of political science students (http://www.polituss.si/), which operates at the Faculty of Social Sciences; in addition to fighting for students' rights, they try to organise an autonomous theoretical production and education according to the principles of self-management. He has cooperated in the initiatives in the fields of student work and precarity, Fronta prekercev and the Working Group Against Work in the framework of the Student Plenum. He is involved in the Odprta Fronta initiative for the reconstruction of student organisations.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Sa¹ka Rakef, dramaturge and journalist.

At both performances, the author of the book, Gerald Raunig, will also be present. At the presentation, the book will be available at a more affordable price of EUR 16.00. The regular price is EUR 19.00.

The presentation of the book and Gerald Raunig's visit was made possible by Pro Helvetia and the Austrian Cultural Forum.

more content (Gerald Raunig: Art and Revolution)

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