Aesthetics and Politics Revisited: An Interview with Jacques Rancière

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Arnall ◽  
Laura Gandolfi ◽  
Enea Zaramella
2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 5-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikos Papastergiadis

Jacques Rancière is one of the central figures in the contemporary debates on aesthetics and politics. This introduction maps the shift of focus in Rancière’s writing from political theory to contemporary art practice and also traces the enduring interest in ideas on equality and creativity. It situates Rancière’s rich body of writing in relation to key theorists such as the philosopher Alain Badiou, art historian Terry Smith and anthropologist George E. Marcus. I argue that Rancière offers a distinctive approach in this broad field by clarifying the specificity of the artist’s task in the production of critical and creative transformation, or what he calls the ‘distribution of the sensible’. In conclusion, I complement Rancière’s invocation to break out of the oppositional paradigm in which the political and aesthetic are usually confined by outlining some further methodological techniques for addressing contemporary art.


Author(s):  
Eduardo Galak

Se interpelan las tensiones en las distancias entre sentidos estéticos y discursos políticos a partir de analizar las revoluciones técnicas y estéticas que se produjeron en la cinematografía de la década de 1920. Para ello se analizan tres largometrajes: Metrópolis, de Fritz Lang (1927), Berlín. Sinfonía de una ciudad, de Walter Ruttmann (1927) y El hombre de la cámara, de Dziga Vértov (1929). En ellos la ciudad se presenta como escenario donde los cuerpos se mueven, narrado por un conjunto de imágenes cuyo montaje se proyecta como el compás armónico de un régimen estético-político de la imagen-movimiento. En el hiato entre educar con la mirada y educar la mirada se trasluce la distancia entre lo que Jacques Rancière denomina como la «estética de la política» y la «política de la estética». Lo cual, confrontándolo con Walter Benjamin, posibilita observar las distancias entre imágenes, entre técnicas, entre originalidades y reproducciones, entre la estética y la política.AbstractThe aim is to analyze the distances between aesthetic senses and political speeches by technical and aesthetical cinematography revolutions happened in the 1920s. This is observed at three feature films: Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927), Berlin. Symphony of a Metropolis (Walter Ruttmann, 1927) and The Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vértov, 1929). At those films the city is exhibited as a scenario where bodies are moving, narrated by a set of images whose assembly is projected as the harmonic compass of an aesthetic-political regime of the image-movement. In the hiatus between educating with the gaze and educating the gaze itself, the distance between what Jacques Rancière called as the «aesthetics of politics» and the «politics of aesthetics» is studied. Confronting this with Walter Benjamin’s theory, it is possible to observe the distances between images, between techniques, between originality and reproduction and between aesthetics and politics.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 297-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Alexandersson ◽  
Viktorija Kalonaityte

In this article we develop the analysis and the conceptualization of the relationship between play and work within the increasingly aestheticized working life, drawing on the scholarship of Jacques Rancière and using images of playful office interiors as our empirical case. In doing so, we are able to add to the theorization of the uneasy relationship between the subordination of employee imagination and self to the agendas of the employer, typical of wage labor, and the strive for heteronomy and refiguring of the social order, characteristic of play.


Author(s):  
Leander Scholz

Der Aufsatz geht der These nach, daß die Fundierung der politischen Theorie in einer ästhetischen Theorie bei Jacques Rancière eine Aktualisierung der Losung der Brüderlichkeit aus der Französischen Revolution darstellt. Diese Aktualisierung der Brüderlichkeit als »ästhetische Gemeinschaft« erlaubt es Rancière, an den Klassenbegriff von Marx anzuschließen, ohne die damit verbundene Gemeinschaftserfahrung begrifflich bestimmen und damit an positive Merkmale binden zu müssen. Weil Rancière seine Demokratietheorie vor allem als eine Interventionstheorie angelegt hat, soll die »ästhetische Gemeinschaft« im Unterschied zum Klassenbegriff es ermöglichen, eine prinzipiell unabgeschlossene Reihe von politischen Subjektivierungsprozessen zu denken. Um diese These zu schärfen, wird Rancières Demokratietheorie mit der von Jacques Derrida verglichen, der auf ganz ähnliche Weise das Demokratische der Demokratie in einem Streit gegeben sieht, der jenseits von demokratischen Spielregeln stattfindet, die Losung der Brüderlichkeit jedoch für überaus problematisch hält.<br><br>This article argues that the foundation of political theory in aesthetics by Jacques Rancière can be seen as an actualization of the slogan of fraternalism during the French Revolution. This actualization of fraternalism as »aesthetic community« gives Rancière the possibility to operate with the Marxian concept of classes without positively defining the experience of community. Because Rancière understands democracy as the chance for political intervention, the concept of an »aesthetic community« (as opposed to the traditional concept of classes) allows him to posit an endless process of political subjectification. To sharpen this argument, the article compares Rancière’s understanding of democracy to Jacques Derrida’s, who also focuses on a democratic struggle beyond democratic rules, but is very skeptical about the slogan of fraternalism.


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