Art, Populism, and the Alterinstitutional Turn
Thu, Oct 12, 2017
6:30 PM–8:00 PM
The James Gallery
What meanings of populism can be carried by a work of art? The book Writers and the People, published in 1965 by the Italian thinker Alberto Asor Rosa (who was then part of the group of heretical Marxists called “Operaisti”), criticized the official Left Italian writers including Pasolini. The populistic approach of these official writers were dictated by the Communist Party following Gramscian rule. Rosa asserted that this cultural device closed down the real revolutionary potential of the working class.
Join Marco Baravalle of the experimental art and activities space S.a.L.E. Docks in Venice for an analysis of Rosa’s book and notions of populism in relation to a selection of artworks from the past twenty years. Can we define a populist approach in visual art beyond propaganda? Baravalle proposes the concept of the alterinstitutional as a place to begin.
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