2 items

‘Political-Timing-Specific’ Performance Art in the Realm of the MuseumBook Section
Hélia Marçal and Daniela Salazar ‘Political-Timing-Specific’ Performance Art in the Realm of the Museum: The Potential of Reenactment as Practice of Memorialization
Can reenactments be a way to create counter-narratives in and for the museum? Through the analysis of political performance (or what the artist Tania Bruguera calls ‘political-timing-specific’ artworks), this essay discusses the potential of reenactment as both a practice of materializing memories and narratives of oppression and of rethinking museum policies in terms of preservation and display. Its main argument is that, while the archive can be regarded as a form of materializing the memory of these works, reenactment is more than a way of recovering the past; it is also a device for reconstructing memories of activism and oppression. This essay further suggests that reenactments of political-timing-specific works demand a change in accessioning, conservation, and presentation practices, which might be inclined to erase decentralized art-historical and material narratives.
2022. reenactment; museum; activism; political-timing-specific art; memory
Materialist Variations on SpinozaBook Section
Mariana de Gainza Materialist Variations on Spinoza: Theoretical Alliances and Political Strategies
Common assertions suppose an incompatibility between critical-dialectical philosophies and Spinozist political ontologies, and allow for an Adornian critique of Spinoza’s Ethics: to live in accordance with one’s own being is a form of compliance to dominant values. By mapping contemporary Spinozism I show that within its tensions there is a place for dialectics, one which can be read in dialogue with the Adornian gesture denouncing the purported identity between particular and universal.
2021. materialism; moral philosophy; ethics; logic; politics, practical; Adorno, Theodor W.; Spinoza, Baruch