A conference and exhibition organized in collaboration with Oliver Ressler— featuring many artists and cultural producers— for 2012 Steirischer Herbst’s “Truth is Concrete” and <rotor> association for contemporary art in Graz, Austria
Nikolay Oleinikov
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The idea of an absolute democracy entails a thorough rethinking of the linear, fixed and orthodox production of historical knowledge and narratives. It is an idea that suggests the need for the redistribution of wealth and power and the need for new systems of rule. Additionally, it denounces the effects of capitalism and in that way challenges normative understandings of class, race, gender and sexuality. The notion of an ‘absolute democracy’ was initially used by philosopher Baruch Spinoza and was reactivated by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, in an attempt to envision “a republic based on the broadest possible cooperation between citizens, and on the development of common goods. These are the terms in which we can really talk about freedom for all.”
The exhibition Absolute Democracy presents the work by artists who critically investigate or problematize “democracy,” as a concept whose social, political and economic implications play an important role in the formation of individual and collective subjectivity. Some of the artists in the exhibition propose alternative readings of repressed histories while others denounce traditional structures of discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, political orientation, etc. Some of the works in the exhibition could be thoughts of as activist, while others use artistic language in order to reflect on these issues.
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—CONFERENCE: Absolute Democracy
Introduction
Carlos Motta and Oliver Ressler
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Session 1: Forms of Democracy: Activism, Art and Cultural Production
“Forms of Democracy: Activism, Art and Cultural Production” asks what is at stake in the process of representing, critiquing, and archiving democracy. Presenters discuss artistic and cultural projects that interrogate the “forms of democracy”— its aesthetic and political articulations—and engage with specific representational strategies that comment on democracy as a form of government but also as a mode of cultural production. Moderation: Carlos Motta (CO/US)
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Jennifer Gonzalez (US)
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Teaching/Learning Democracy: Delegate Reports from Three Schools of Echoes
Manuela Bojadzijev, Janna Graham & Dont Rhine from Ultra-red (D/UK/US)
Kabul: Constitutions
Mariam Ghani (US)
Reality Can Suck My Dick, Darling: Getting the History We Deserve
Miguel López (PE)
Communal Living
Nikolay Oleinikov (RU)
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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WIH THE AUDIENCE— Download/listen to audio here
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Session 2: Thinking Politics Freed From the State
“Thinking Politics Freed From the State” was devoted to presentations that imagine democratic models independent from the State and that envision new understanding of governability and of self-determination
Yours in Solidarity
Nicoline van Harskamp (NL)
Paths Through Utopias: Everyday Life Despite Capitalism
Isabelle Fremeaux & John Jordan (F/UK)
Between Utopia and Failure
Sofía Olascoaga (MX)
Autonomia, for example
Marco Scotini (I)
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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WIH THE AUDIENCE — Download/listen to audio here
DOWNLOAD ALL PRESENTATIONS’ ABSTRACTS HERE
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—EXHIBITION: Absolute Democracy
An exhibition at <rotor> association for contemporary art presenting installations and films by: Julieta Aranda & Anton Vidokle, Petra Bauer, Lenin Brea & Nuria Vila, Miklós Erhardt & Claudio Feliziani, Isabelle Fremeaux & John Jordan, Mariam Ghani, Carles Guerra, Nicoline van Harskamp, Jim Hubbard, Vladan Jeremic & Rena Rädle, Alejandro Landes, Nikolay Oleynikov, Fernando Solanas, Ultra-red.
Nikolay Oleinikov
Mariam Ghani
Nicoline van Harskamp
Projection room with 10 films
Ultra-red
All exhibition photos by Thomas Raggam