The art of democracy: constitutive power and the limits of dissensus

Abstract

This article engages critically with the normative framing of socially engaged/collaborative art as a consensual/dissensual dichotomy, whereby consensual practices are equated with political abdication. This way of framing such practices gives rise to three significant problems: one concerns the passive positioning of viewers/participants relative to the authorial autonomy of the artwork; the second concerns an inadequate understanding of power; and the third is an apparent inability to think consensus and dissensus together as features of the same arena of practice. The article argues for a more open approach to studying the relationship between politics and aesthetics, thereby avoiding the trap of using artistic practices as illustrative cases in support of conclusions that have been reached before the analysis has even commenced.

Keywords:

• constitutive power
• dialogical aesthetics
• relational antagonism
• socially engaged art
• subjectivation

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this article have been presented at the Research Seminar Series at the School of Political Science & Sociology, NUI Galway and to IPSA Research Committee 36 (Political Power) at the 23rd IPSA World Congress, Montreal 2014. I wish to thank participants at both of these events for their helpful comments and criticisms and, in particular, Jonathan Heaney for taking the time to provide me with extensive feedback and also for (what have proven to be) enormously helpful suggestions. I’m also indebted to Mark Haugaard and the reviewers for the Journal of Political Power for their thoughtful and insightful observations and suggestions.

Notes

1. Christoph Schlingensief died in 2010.

2. This is the subtitle title of Paul Poet’s documentary (Ausländer Raus! Schlingensief’s Container, 2005, Monitorpop Entertainment).

3. A photograph of this Welcome sign is available on the Australian Human Rights Commission website: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/last-resort-national-inquiry-children-immigration-detention/5-mechanisms-protect-human (dated 13 May 2004).

4. The concept of communicative action is most closely associated with the work of Jürgen Habermas (1984, 1987). Here, I am using this as a normatively neutral concept in the tradition of speech act theory (Austin 1962), and thus deviating from Habermas’ usage, which is discussed briefly below.

5. The Russian performance artist Petyr Pavlensky seems to have made this connection when he sewed his lips together to protest against the arrest of members of Pussy Riot. Pavlensky discusses this action in an interview published on Dazed Digital, available here: http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/14077/1/petr-pavlensky-v-vladimir-putin.

6. Mouffe does in fact defend what she calls ‘a sort of conflictual consensus’. This is consistent with her theory of agonism, assuming as it does that opponents within the space of the democratic contest share a commitment to core ideals such as freedom and justice, but at the same time disagree on the meaning of these ideals and how they should be implemented (2005, p. 52, 2013, p. 8). I will offer an alternative way of thinking the relationship between conflict and consensus in the next section.

7. This relates to note 4 above i.e. Habermas’ discourse ethics is anchored in his Theory of Communicative Action, his argument being that the implicit norms built into the structure of communication push interlocutors to try to reach mutual understanding and normative agreement, with the question ‘why?’ (why did you say that?, why did you do that?) acting as a ‘warranty’ against insincerity, deceit and manipulation.

8. Stills and video footage from these works can be viewed on Sierra’s website here: http://www.santiago-sierra.com/index_1024.php.

9. Along with the ‘scheduled castes’, the Adivasi were previously counted among those known as ‘untouchable’.

10. On the issue of gender, see Kester’s discussion on the Nalpar project, which concerns the refurbishment of water collection sites and the creation of enclosures that enhance the autonomy of Adivasi women (Kester 2011, pp. 78–83).

11. Imagery from the workshops is available on Navjot Altaf’s website: http://www.navjotaltaf.com/pillagudi.html.

12. Park Fiction was renamed Gezi Park Hamburg on 16 June 2013, in support of the Gezi Park protesters in Istanbul.