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01/06
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊAmongst all other forms of art, fine art has
been most closely linked to post-Fordist
speculation, with bling, boom, and bust.
Contemporary art is no unworldly discipline
nestled away in some remote ivory tower. On the
contrary, it is squarely placed in the neoliberal
thick of things. We cannot dissociate the hype
around contemporary art from the shock policies
used to defibrillate slowing economies. Such
Hito Steyerl hype embodies the affective dimension of global
economies tied to ponzi schemes, credit
Politics of Art: addiction, and bygone bull markets.
Contemporary art is a brand name without a
brand, ready to be slapped onto almost anything,
Contemporary a quick face-lift touting the new creative
imperative for places in need of an extreme
Art and the makeover, the suspense of gambling combined
with the stern pleasures of upper-class boarding
school education, a licensed playground for a
Transition to world confused and collapsed by dizzying
deregulation. If contemporary art is the answer,
Post- the question is: How can capitalism be made
more beautiful?
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊBut contemporary art is not only about
Politics of Art: Contemporary Art and the Transition to Post-Democracy
02/06
to toe with blood and dirt, it triggers off rounds privatization, expropriation, and speculation. But
and rounds of rapturous applause. the actual production of art is simultaneously a
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWhy and for whom is contemporary art so workshop for many of the nouveaux poor, trying
attractive? One guess: the production of art their luck as jpeg virtuosos and conceptual
presents a mirror image of post-democratic impostors, as gallerinas and overdrive content
forms of hypercapitalism that look set to become providers. Because art also means work, more
the dominant political post-Cold War paradigm. precisely strike work.4 It is produced as
It seems unpredictable, unaccountable, brilliant, spectacle, on post-Fordist all-you-can-work
mercurial, moody, guided by inspiration and conveyor belts. Strike or shock work is affective
genius. Just as any oligarch aspiring to labor at insane speeds, enthusiastic,
dictatorship might want to see himself. The hyperactive, and deeply compromised.
traditional conception of the artistÕs role ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊOriginally, strike workers were excess
corresponds all too well with the self-image of laborers in the early Soviet Union. The term is
wannabe autocrats, who see government derived from the expression Òudarny trudÓ for
potentially Ð and dangerously Ð as an art form. Òsuperproductive, enthusiastic laborÓ (udar for
Post-democratic government is very much Òshock, strike, blowÓ). Now, transferred to
related to this erratic type of male-genius-artist present-day cultural factories, strike work
behavior. It is opaque, corrupt, and completely relates to the sensual dimension of shock.
unaccountable. Both models operate within male Rather than painting, welding, and molding,
bonding structures that are as democratic as artistic strike work consists of ripping, chatting,
your local mafia chapter. Rule of law? Why donÕt and posing. This accelerated form of artistic
we just leave it to taste? Checks and balances? production creates punch and glitz, sensation
03/06
readymade or readymade reality Ð strike work would be to classify this constituency as
supplies consumers with all they never knew multitude or crowd, it might be less romantic to
they wanted. ask whether they are not global
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊStrike work feeds on exhaustion and tempo, lumpenfreelancers, deterritorialized and
on deadlines and curatorial bullshit, on small ideologically free-floating: a reserve army of
talk and fine print. It also thrives on accelerated imagination communicating via Google Translate.
exploitation. IÕd guess that Ð apart from domestic
and care work Ð art is the industry with the most ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊInstead of shaping up as a new class, this
unpaid labor around. It sustains itself on the fragile constituency may well consist Ð as
time and energy of unpaid interns and self- Hannah Arendt once spitefully formulated Ð of
exploiting actors on pretty much every level and the Òrefuse of all classes.Ó These dispossessed
in almost every function. Free labor and rampant adventurers described by Arendt, the urban
exploitation are the invisible dark matter that pimps and hoodlums ready to be hired as
keeps the cultural sector going. colonial mercenaries and exploiters, are faintly
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊFree-floating strike workers plus new (and (and quite distortedly) mirrored in the brigades of
old) elites and oligarchies equal the framework creative strike workers propelled into the global
of the contemporary politics of art. While the sphere of circulation known today as the art
latter manage the transition to post-democracy, world.5 If we acknowledge that current strike
the former image it. But what does this situation workers might inhabit similarly shifting grounds
actually indicate? Nothing but the ways in which Ð the opaque disaster zones of shock capitalism
contemporary art is implicated in transforming Ð a decidedly un-heroic, conflicted, and
global power patterns. ambivalent picture of artistic labor emerges.
05/06
its space as a political one instead of trying to
represent a politics that is always happening
elsewhere. Art is not outside politics, but politics
resides within its production, its distribution,
and its reception. If we take this on, we might
surpass the plane of a politics of representation
and embark on a politics that is there, in front of
our eyes, ready to embrace.
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ×
This text is dedicated to the people who bear with me through
digital hysteria, frequent flyer syndrome, and installation
disasters. Thanks especially to Tirdad, Christoph, David, and
Freya. Also Brian for the edit, as always.
06/06
Alberro and Blake Stimson
ÊÊÊÊÊÊ2 (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press,
This has been described as a 2009). See also the collected
global and ongoing process of issues of the online journal
expropriation since the 1970s. transform:
See David Harvey, A Brief History http://transform.eipcp.ne
of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford t/transversal/0106.
University Press, 2005). As for
the resulting distribution of ÊÊÊÊÊÊ8
wealth, a study by the Helsinki- Recently on show at Henie
based World Institute for Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo was
Development Economics ÒGuggenheim Visibility Study
Research of the United Nations Group,Ó a very interesting project
University (UNU-WIDER) found by Nomeda and Gediminas
that in the year 2000, the richest Urbonas that unpacked the
1 percent of adults alone owned tensions between local (and
40 percent of global assets. The partly indigenist) art scenes and
bottom half of the world's adult the Guggenheim franchise
population owned 1 percent of system, with the Guggenheim
global wealth. See effect analyzed in detail in a
http://www.wider.unu.edu/eve case study. See
nts/past-events/2006-events/ http://www.vilma.cc/2G/. Also
en_GB/05-12-2006/. see Joseba Zulaika, Guggenheim
Bilbao Museoa: Museums,
ÊÊÊÊÊÊ3 Architecture, and City Renewal
For just one example of oligarch (Reno: Center for Basque
involvement, see Studies, University of Nevada,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/ 2003). Another case study: Beat
04/28/nyregion/28trustee.htm l. Weber, Therese Kaufmann, ÒThe
While such biennials span from Foundation, the State Secretary
Moscow to Dubai to Shanghai and the Bank Ð A Journey into
and many of the so-called the Cultural Policy of a Private
transitional countries, we Institution,Ó
shouldnÕt consider post- http://transform.eipcp.net/c
democracy to be a non-Western orrespondence/1145970626. S
phenomenon. The Schengen ee also Martha Rosler, ÒTake the
Politics of Art: Contemporary Art and the Transition to Post-Democracy