After the Law: Towards Judicial-Visual Activism | Avi Feldman [E-Book PDF]
Law and art are oftentimes perceived as standing in opposition, and even seen in conflicting terms. The first is dismissed as provincial, rigid, and bureaucratic, while the latter is repeatedly characterized as global, flexible, and dynamic. Yet, closer observation and analysis reveal hidden links and layers, and substantial preoccupation by both legal and art practitioners in the visual and in the judicial. It is through the unraveling of spaces, gaps, and lacunae in which both fields of practice and knowledge intersect that this publication sets in motion an exploration of influences and interactions between law and art. Offering a new critical approach and methodology to deal with existing and imagined relations between law and art, this publication analyzes curatorial and artistic projects by revealing overlooked legal dimensions embedded within them. It introduces legal theory and scholarship in relation to visual artworks in order to expand and foster new paths for both judicial and visual activism. Based on the reassessment of artistic and curatorial capabilities and encounters in a time of globalization, it is concerned with broadening our perception of the role of art and legal practitioners with regard to justice.
242 pages (PDF), ONCURATING.org, 2019
ISBN 9781699881668
Following an introduction of Nancy Fraser’s three-dimensional concept of justice, and Saskia Sassen’s notion of capabilities in a world shaped by the dual existence of the nation-state and globalization, Chapter One focuses on the 7th Berlin Biennale as a curatorial case study for political and artistic activism, and on “Artist Organisations International” (AOI) as an example of artist-created institutions concerned with political activism.
Two artistic projects that premiered during the 7th Berlin Biennale are then critically examined in Chapters Two and Three. An in-depth exploration of Yael Bartana’s First Congress of The Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP) as a space prompting global justice is the focus of Chapter Two. The building of a Parliament in Rojava by Jonas Staal’s New World Summit (NWS) as an artistic reinvention of the Right of Intervention is the concern of Chapter Three.
Judicial-visual activism is further developed in Chapter Four through an inquiry into the theory of the emergence of disputes, and the Right of the Encounter in relation to artistic actions taking place in state institutions. Chapter Five contains a reflection on my own recent curatorial projects dedicated to encounters that I facilitated between legal and art practitioners. The result of these encounters led to the exhibition Motions for the Agenda structured around five motions/projects developed in a collaboration between the participants dealing with legal texts and documents, just as with the place of law, its language, and its archive.
This publication is based on the thesis and exhibition completed as part of the PhD in Practice in Curating Program, a joint doctoral program of the Zurich University of the Arts and the University of Reading, supported by “swissuniversities.”
After the Law: Towards Judicial-Visual Activism | Avi Feldman
Law and art are oftentimes perceived as standing in opposition, and even seen in conflicting terms. The first is dismissed as provincial, rigid, and bureaucratic, while the latter is repeatedly characterized as global, flexible, and dynamic. Yet, closer observation and analysis reveal hidden links and layers, and substantial preoccupation by both legal and art practitioners in the visual and in the judicial. It is through the unraveling of spaces, gaps, and lacunae in which both fields of practice and knowledge intersect that this publication sets in motion an exploration of influences and interactions between law and art. Offering a new critical approach and methodology to deal with existing and imagined relations between law and art, this publication analyzes curatorial and artistic projects by revealing overlooked legal dimensions embedded within them. It introduces legal theory and scholarship in relation to visual artworks in order to expand and foster new paths for both judicial and visual activism. Based on the reassessment of artistic and curatorial capabilities and encounters in a time of globalization, it is concerned with broadening our perception of the role of art and legal practitioners with regard to justice.
242 pages, ONCURATING.org, 2019
ISBN 9781699881668
Extraordinaire! | Katrin Luchsinger, Helen Hirsch, Thomas Röske (Hg.)
CHF 39.00
Unbekannte Werke aus psychiatrischen Einrichtungen in der Schweiz um 1900
In einem bisher einzigartigen Projekt wurde in der Schweiz das künstlerische Schaffen von Patient*innen in psychiatrischen Anstalten aus dem Zeitraum 1870 bis 1930 insgesamt gesichtet. Eine Auswahl meist unbekannter Werke wird hier vorgestellt. Die internierten Männer und Frauen schufen ihre Werke mit Hingabe und grosser technischer sowie fachlicher Kompetenz. Sie verstanden sie als Beitrag zum öffentlichen Leben, als Erfindung oder Ausdruck eines Gedankengebäudes, als Kritik an der Anstalt oder Bereicherung in ihrem eintönigen Alltag. Ihre Arbeiten reflektieren, was um 1900 als «nicht normal» galt und ihre Erfahrung aus der Öffentlichkeit ausgeschlossen zu sein. Durch ihre Werke kommen die Künstler*innen zu Wort und bereichern das Kunstschaffen um 1900 um eine neue Facette. (dt./engl.)
320 Seiten, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2018
ISBN 978-3-85881-604-7
Constructions of Cultural Identities in Newsreel Cinema and Television after 1945 | Kornelia Imesch, Sigrid Schade, Samuel Sieber (eds.)
Bis in die 1960er Jahre prägten Wochenschauen in Kinos und Fernsehen die politische Landschaft und trugen zur Bildung nationaler und kultureller Identität bei. Sie beeinflussten massgeblich die Entwicklung heutiger effektvoller Fernsehformate. Die Archive der Wochenschau-Aufnahmen werden wiederholt verwendet, um vergangene Ereignisse und ihre Bedeutung zu illustrieren und reinszenieren. Die Publikation verhandelt Wochenschauen als ein Medium zur Bildung kultureller Identitäten in den verschiedenen nationalen Kontexten nach 1945.
230 Seiten, transcript, 2016
ISBN 978-3-8376-2975-0
Die Künste im Gespräch | Corinna Caduff, Sabine Gebhardt Fink, Florian Keller, Steffen Schmidt (Hg.)
Das interdisziplinäre Autor*innenteam beschäftigt sich in diesem Band mit dem Verhältnis von Kunst, Musik, Literatur und Film. In den Gegenwartskünsten gehört die Überschreitung von herkömmlichen Disziplin- und Mediengrenzen längst zum Alltag. Die Beiträge reflektieren im Spannungsfeld von Hoch- und Alltagskultur diese Tendenzen, indem sie verschiedenen Fragen auch historisch nachgehen: Wie erscheinen bestimmte Themen und Motive – z. B. die Träne, die Ekstase, der Sport – in den verschiedenen Künsten, wo zeigen sich ästhetische Differenzen und Analogien? Wie kann man umgehen mit geschichtlichen Diskontinuitäten, die sich dabei im Vergleich der Künste ergeben?
