WG4POLITICS OF AESTHETICS
ABOUT
This working group begins from a recognition that meaning-production can be a violent tool of categorizing and othering and that the concept of “research” has long been built on the condition of “extractivism.”
Artistic research dismisses the fantasy of creating transparent messages in order to transmit its findings. As art practice it deals with and reflects on aesthetic forms. I understand aesthetic form to describe all ways of appearing, including the specific spatial arrangement and temporal movement in works of art and other cultural products, and there is no aesthetic form without aesthetic politics. (Renate Lorenz “UNFINISHED GLOSSARY OF ARTISTIC RESEARCH”, Futures of Artistic Research, Helsinki, 2017.)
An aspect of the work of this group is to challenge, undermine, and transcend these processes. Refusal, opacity, and abjection are among some of the possible political-aesthetic ways of working in the field of art that are considered by the group.
MEMBERS
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is the initiator of this group:
- Berhanu Ashagrie (PhD. Candidate Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) (Contact for WG4)
- Prof. Renate Lorenz (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna)
- Prof. Anette Baldauf (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna)
- Rabbya Naseer (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna)
- Dr. Azadeh Fatehrad (KUL/The Warburg Institute London)
UPCOMING
Pending update at the October Symposium in Stockholm 22–24 October 2025 at “bodies as institutions as bodies.”
PREVIOUS
Dr. Azadeh Fatehrad together with other colleagues from across the EARN network co-organised “Citation” the 2019 edition of the EARN conference, convened by the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds in partnership with Leeds Art Gallery and Pavilion.
Professors Anette Baldauf, Renate Lorenz (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) organized the HAUNTOPIA / WHAT IF Programme in Venice (Sept 8-9, 2017) as the annual EARN event and in conjunction with the Research Pavilion (created and hosted by Uniarts Helsinki.)