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Analysis of the artworks Village Project Uganda by Kristian von Hornsleth and Guaraná Power by Superflex
University of Copenhagen, bachelor project
Text in danish!
SUMMARY in english It is the aim of this paper, "Intervention and Dialogue in Contemporary Art," to examine the position of socially and politically engaged contemporary art. By using Peter Bürger's Theorie der Avantgarde and Hal Foster's The Return of the Real I sum up characteristics of the avant-garde and the neo-avant-garde, and I point out how these movements have created some of the premises for contemporary art practice. In my analysis of the artworks Superflex's Guaraná Power and Kristian von Hornsleth's Village Project Uganda, I draw on different positions of contemporary art-theory. By using Nicholas Bourriaud's theory about relational aesthetics I examine how artists create models of alternative ways of living. By including Claire Bishop's critique of this theory I emphasize the risk of these models turning into micro-utopias, onto which people project the wish for changes instead of carrying out these changes in society. Since both artworks take place in third world countries
I use Grant Kester's and Hal Foster's theories of ideological patronage and the ethnographic artist to analyse the relations the artists create. Hornsleth's work consists of a provocative act of neo-colonisation, and he recreates stereotypical structures of power and production of otherness. Superflex try to avoid this, and their project seeks to represent the Other as a powerful business-partner. Still the hierarchies and power structures are so complex that Superflex cannot avoid taking part in their recreation too. To outline the social context of contemporary art I use Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's theory of the Empire. According to Hardt and Negri, alongside with the development of global capitalism, the imperialistic world order has been replaced by one sovereign power, the Empire. There is no position outside the Empire from which critique can be constructed, and therefore the models of alternatives to this world order must be placed inside the Empire. This is exactly what Superflex and Hornsleth do with their alternative models of global capitalism, and therefore I believe that they manage to criticise the existing structures of power from the inside.
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