A new wave of artistic activism has emerged in recent years in response to the ever-increasing dominance of authoritarian neoliberalism. Activist practices in the art field, however, have been around much longer. As Oliver Marchart claims, there has always been an activist undercurrent in art. In this lecture he traces trajectories of artistic activism in theater, dance, performance, and public art, and investigates the political potential of urbanism, curating, and “biennials of resistance.” What emerges is a conflictual aesthetics that does not conform with traditional approaches to the field and that activates the political potential of artistic practice.

The lecture will be held in English.

Oliver Marchart, born 1968, is a political theorist and philosopher. He is currently professor of political theory at the University of Vienna. 2001-2006 research assistant at the Institute for Media Studies at the University of Basel. 2006-2012 SNSF-Professorship at the Sociology Department of the University of Lucerne. 2012-2016 Professor of Sociology at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. 2013 Senior Fellow at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies (IFK) Vienna. His books include Post-foundational Political Thought: Political Difference in Nancy, Lefort, Badiou and Laclau (2007), Thinking Antagonism: Political Ontology after Laclau (2018), Conflictual Aesthetics: Artistic Activism and the Public Sphere (2019), and the forthcoming Post-foundational Theories of Democracy: Reclaiming Freedom, Equality, Solidarity.