Geert Lovink on Wed, 5 Jul 2006 16:30:52 +0200 (CEST)


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<nettime-ann> Paolo Virno at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt Dezember 2006


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From: Bernd Huettner <bhuettner@niatu.net>
Date: 4 July 2006 8:05:19 PM

http://213.138.52.53/unterdruck.html

Under Pressure – about pictures turning into subjects, individuals
becoming collectives, and the new spirit of capitalism

The aim of this conference is twofold: We want to discuss the value
system resulting from the "New Spirit Of Capitalism" with three
scholars: the Italian philosopher Paolo Virno, the French sociologist
Luc Boltanski, and the American Professor of English Language and
Literature W.J.T. Mitchell.
Each of these writers has developed new tools that seem very useful for
an analysis of the present condition. But we also want to confront some
of their propositions with the realities of artistic production. Can
"exit" and "disobedience", as envisioned by Virno, be considered options
from an artistic point of view? And what would an insistence on "status"
or long term projects as invoked by Boltanski/Chiapello look like if
artists where to take on this strategy? How much can one count on
pictures alone, as Mitchell seems to do, and can pictures really change
the "ways of worldmaking"?


The idea for this conference emerged during the course of two seminars
at the Städelschule/Frankfurt, where three books were studied: Luc
Boltanski & Eve Chiapello´s "The New Spirit of Capitalism," Paolo
Virno´s "A Grammar of the Multitude," and W.J.T. Mitchells "What Do
Pictures Want?". Despite their differences and respective specificities,
we noticed striking similarities as far as the diagnosis of our present
condition is concerned. Where Virno emphasizes communication as the
"queen of productive forces," Boltanski and Chiapello propose their
notion of a "project-based Polis" in which information and contacts are
must-haves. For Mitchell it is "Pictures" that are alive and can speak –
they are living symbols that contribute to producing the conditions of
the new "Empire."


The Institut für Kunstkritik at the Städelschule was founded by Daniel
Birnbaum and Isabelle Graw in 2003. It regularly organizes lectures and
seminars with critics and theorists. Among recent guests: Giorgio
Agamben, Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, and Michael Fried,

Under Pressure is a collaboration with Frankfurt's Institut für
Sozialforschung.

Staatliche Hochschule für Bildenden Künste - Städelschule
Dürerstr. 10
60596 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

tel.: +49 69 60 50 08 -52
fax.: +49 69 60 50 08 -66
http://www.staedelschule.de





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