OPEN Cahier on Art and the Public Domain: Emergency Issue. The New Politics of Culture (2011) [Dutch]

“The Dutch government’s new cultural plan and the cutbacks have intruded on our comfort zone and roughly awoken us from our reflective and theorising positions as critical observers.

This ’emergency issue’ of Open. Cahier on Art and the Public Domain is a special edition that accompanies De Groene Amsterdammer on September 23, 2011. It not only addresses the austerity measures, but also pays special attention to the overarching ideology and the right-populist government policy from which these arise.

Similarly, the publication does not merely defend the position of the arts, but is a record of public opposition to what many believe is a malicious policy that is adversely affecting or excluding growing numbers of groups (the sickly, immigrants, refugees, children, the elderly, artists, ‘ordinary’ people) and issues (relating to culture, knowledge, the environment, education, health care, multiculturalism).”

With contributions by Willem de Rooij, Jorinde Seijdel, Joke Robaard, Merijn Oudenampsen, Sven Lütticken, Willem Schinkel, Steven ten Thije, Dirk van Weelden, Bik Van der Pol, Can Altay, Jeremiah Day, Charles Esche, Zihni Özdil, Pascal Gielen, Robin Brouwer, Arnoud Holleman, Gert Jan Kocken, Florian Cramer, Josephine Bosma, Eric Kluitenberg, Grahame Lock, Marc Schuilenburg, Luuk Boelens, Hugo Priemus, Margreet Fogteloo, Samuel Vriezen, Jonas Staal, Chris Keulemans, Lotte Haagsma, Matthijs de Bruijne, Actie Schone kunsten, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Foundland, Lidwien van de Ven, Liesbeth Melis, Thomas Buxó

Publisher: SKOR / NAi Uitgevers, September 2011
68 pages

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2013-2-6)
Previous issues

Jonas Staal: Art, Property of Politics I-II (2010) [English/Dutch]

“In 2010, Dutch artist Jonas Staal realized the exhibitions Art, Property of Politics and Art, Property of Politics II: Freethinkers’ Space in which he researched the art collections of Dutch political parties. The first part took place in exhibition space TENT in Rotterdam, during the municipal elections of 2010, in which he showed the artworks of all parties involved in the elections. In a documentary produced by filmmaker Rob Schröder he challenged politicians to introduce their political vision based on their own art collections. The second part took place in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and existed of artworks that were selected by the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Party for Freedom (PVV) in their so-called ‘Freethinkers’ Space’: and exhibition space that the parties opened in Dutch parliament to give a platform for artists that had dealt with religious (Islamic) censorship. The project focused on the way in which artworks were used as instruments for representing a political idea of democratic freedom.” (from Wikipedia)

Author (Art, Property of Politics)
Author (Art, Property of Politics II: Freethinkers’ Space)
Wikipedia

PDF (I, updated on 2018-7-26)
PDF (II, updated on 2018-7-26)

Alain Badiou: Metapolitics (1998–)

“Metapolitics argues that one of the main tasks of contemporary thought is to abolish the idea that politics is merely an object for philosophical reflection.

Badiou indicts this approach, which reduces politics to a matter of opinion, thus eliminating any of its truly radical and emancipatory possibilities. Against this intellectual tradition, Badiou proposes instead the consideration of politics in terms of the production of truth and the affirmation of equality. He demands that the question of a possible “political truth” be separated from any notion of consensus or public opinion, and that political action be rethought in terms of the complex process that binds discussion to decision. Starting from this analysis, Badiou critically examines the thought of anthropologist and political theorist Sylvain Lazarus, Jacques Ranciere’s writings on workers’ history and democratic dissensus, the role of the subject in Althusser, as well as the concept of democracy and the link between truth and justice.”

First published in French as Abrégé de métapolitique, Seuil, Paris, 1998

Translated and with an Introduction by Jason Barker
Publisher Verso, 2005
ISBN 184467035X, 9781844670352
159 pages

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2020-7-5)