Spheres of Action: Art and Politics

by Éric Alliez (editor), Peter Osborne (Editor)

A snapshot of current debates about the relationship of politics to contemporary art, with original writings by major European thinkers. Contemporary art is increasingly part of a wider network of cultural practices, related through a common set of references in cultural theory. Within Europe, relations between national theoretical traditions have become more fluid and dynamic, creating an increasingly transnational--or postnational--space for European cultural and art theory. This book offers a snapshot of recent influential work in contemporary art and political theory in France, Italy, and Germany, in the form of original writings by major representatives of each of the three overlapping national traditions. In France, debates center on the status and possibilities of the image. Éric Alliez, Georges Didi-Huberman, Elisabeth Lebovici, and Jacques Rancière each adopt a distinctive approach to the making, undoing, and remaking of aesthetic images in contemporary art and their political significance. From Italy, Antonio Negri, Maurizio Lazzarato, Judith Revel, and Franco Berardi each address the "immaterial" situation of contemporary art. From Germany, Peter Sloterdijk, Peter Weibel, and Boris Groys reassess the contemporary legacy of postwar art, demonstrating appropriations of vitalism, structuralism, and deconstruction, respectively.

Genres: Nonfiction

159 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

Éric Alliez is a philosopher and Professor at Université Paris 8 and at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London. He is the author of Capital Times, The Signature of the World: Or, What is Deleuze and Guattari's Philosophy?, The Brain-Eye: New Histories of Modern Painting, and Wars and Capital, with Maurizio Lazzarato (Semiotext(e), and editor of The Guattari Effect, with Andrew Goffey, and Spheres of Action: Art and Politics, with Peter Osborne (MIT Press).

Reviews

[Shoon Teoh]

Collection of 11 essays which cover a fairly wide ranging of art topics including terrorism, capitalism, production of art today and the role of the museum. Highly recommended, fairly accessible and relatively short essays.

[Rosie Kerensa]

made my head hurt but good essays ‘This is Not My Body’ by Elisabeth Levovici was particularly good