Maria Hlavajova Livres

"Propositions for Non-Fascist Living begins from the urgent need to model a world decidedly void of fascisms during a time when the rise of contemporary fascisms threatens the very foundations of a possibility for common life. Borrowing from Michel Foucault's notion of "non-fascist living" as an "art of living counter to all forms of fascism," including that "in us all... the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us," the book addresses the practice of living rather than the mere object of life. Artists, theorists, activists, and scholars offer texts and visual essays that engage varied perspectives on practicing life and articulate methods that support multiplicity and difference rather than vaunting power and hierarchy. Architectural theorist Eyal Weizman, for example, describes an "unlikely common" in gathering evidence against false narratives; art historian and critic Sven Lütticken develops a non-fascist proposition drawn from the intersection of art, technology, and law; philosopher Rosi Braidotti explores an ethics of affirmation and the practices of dying. Propositions for Non-Fascist Living is the first in a BASICS series of readers from BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, engaging some of the most urgent problems of our time through theoretically informed and politically driven artistic research and practice."-- From Amazon

The book presents the responses of artists, theorists, scientists, etc. to the question, which questions they were currently asking themselves, as well as excerpts of the telephone conversations held with them about issues they consider urgent in our time.

Combining handbook, dictionary, and anthology, investigations and examples of artistic practices aimed at social change.This volume from BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, combines handbook, dictionary, and anthology to investigate artistic practice aimed at achieving social change. With text and visual essays, definitions, exercises, interviews, and images, the contributors envision a praxis that is committed to experimenting with aesthetics and politics in ways that go beyond the conventions of Western modernity. These are practices that are interdisciplinary, theoretically informed, and politically driven, offering ways of "being together otherwise." Catalyzed by the work of artist Jeanne van Heeswijk, which focuses on radicalizing civic processes, Toward the Not-Yet imagines and enacts alternative ways of conceiving the present and future.Contributors, among them notable artists, scholars, activists, and writers consider ways of participating in civic life, including "dreamscaping" and "radical listening"; the creation of safer spaces for humans and nonhumans; ways of radically shifting laws and policies; and tactics and methods of collective sanctuary. Toward the Not-Yet is part of BAK's series of BASICS readers, debuting a SUPERBASICS variation that is larger, with more visual content.Copublished with BAK, basis voor actuele kunst

Merging theoretical models derived from anthropology and from contemporary art discourse, "We Roma: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art" looks at the Roma (i.e. Romany, or gypsy) lifestyle and examines its resonances with current civic and artistic concerns. As social and economic injustice extends from the historically marginalized to the "99 percent," this volume takes ideas from gypsy culture and the pioneering work of anthropologist Alfred Gell to propose alternative modes of existence for the disenfranchised. It contains both old and new writing by artists, theorists and activists of both Roma and non-Roma origin: Albert Atkin, Huub van Baar, Zygmunt Bauman, Delaine & Damian James le Bas, Ethel Brooks, Agnes Daroczi, Tony Gatlif & Cecile Kovacshazy, Ian Hancock, Sanja Ivekovic, Timea Junghaus, Irit Rogoff, Regina Romhild & Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Salman Rushdie and Mike Sell.

"Deserting from the Culture Wars reflects upon and intervenes in our current moment of ever-more polarizing ideological combat, often seen as the return of the "culture wars." How are these culture wars defined and waged? Engaging in a theater of war that has been delineated by the enemy is a shortcut to defeat. Getting out of the reactive mode that produces little but a series of Pavlovian responses, this book proposes a tactical desertion from the culture wars as they are being waged today--a refusal to play the other side's war games, an unwillingness to be distracted.The volunteer troops in the culture wars are often given marching orders by professional masters of propaganda. What, then, might artists and others who are professionally engaged with images and imaginaries, with narratives and assemblies, have to contribute to the collective discovery of different modes of living culture? Far from limiting the performance of culture to a one-sided speech act, to the abstract "right to say something," an emancipatory understanding of culture needs to conceive of it as embodied and intersubjective--as a collective performance." -- Provided by publisher

What has become of the so-called West after the Cold War? Why hasn't the West simply become former, as has its supposed counterpart, the former East? In this book, artists, thinkers, and activists explore the repercussions of the political, cultural, and economic events of 1989 on both art and the contemporary. The culmination of an eight-year curatorial research experiment, Former West imagines a world beyond our immediate condition. The writings, visual essays, and conversations in Former West - more than seventy diverse contributions with global scope - unfold a tangled cartography far more complex than the simplistic dichotomy of East vs. West. In fact, the Cold War was a contest not between two ideological blocs but between two variants of Western modernity. It is this conceptual Westcentrism that a formering of the West seeks to undo.