The turned away symbolic economy of protest

The emergence of different kinds of urban protests in the 21^th century profoundly renewed our understanding of power of things and spaces. It is clear that many of the most successful urban protests represent reactions to the well-documented mistakes of the governments. For the last three decades new ideas of aesthetization, symbolic economy, public culture and global cultural industries have been continually developed by cultural urban studies and urban policies. Situation is even more unstable today, now that we have entered an political mutation of cultural connections between things, signs and space. So the three thesis I propose consider in this article: 1. Protest is the only one of everyday practices in the city life; 2. Everything you have on one, you can use to say „No”; 3. Agora is there when you are standing. The rationalisation of urban space produces a new ontologies of things, individuals, societies and spaces. The idea of public cultures posthuman performativity requires an active reformulation of urban protest as an ‘ugly’ crowd. 

This article discusses the art projects, which fulfill the function of counterpublics, which I understand, following Nancy Fraser, Alexander Kluge and Oskar Negt, as a critique of the political institutions, which also undermines the public/private divide. Some recent artistic productions in Poland have generated such forms of critique and resistance, allowing voices and demands of various oppressed minorities not only to be represented, but also to enter and initiate public debates and transform the modes of contestation. They imply another resistance and critique, which overcome the heroic modes of articulation, thus enacting the weak, marginalized and ordinary as political agency.

*Research for this article was made possible through the grant of the National Science Centre, Poland (NCN 2016/23/B/HS2/01338).

Deaf Culture as culture of resistance. How the Deaf Culture emerged in the United States and was adopted in Poland

Deaf Culture is a part of the long process of evolution of the American deaf community. Established in American social, cultural and political realm, Deaf Culture benefited greatly from the principles of self-organisation, self-efficiency as well as civil rights movements and movement of people with disabilities, gaining its peak in the 1990s. In this form Deaf Culture was adopted by the Polish deaf communities, that were redefining themselves in the post-socialist transformation period. Adapting the American model of Deaf Culture as normative, the only “true” and “correct” deaf experience, Polish deaf took over: the distinction between Deaf and deaf, the opposition towards cochlear implants, and the spirit of resistance and public protesting. The article investigates the resistant character of the Deaf Culture as well as its consequences in Polish post-socialist political and social context. 

* Artykuł powstał w ramach projektu sfinansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki przyznanych na podstawie decyzji numer DEC-2014/15/D/HS2/03252 – projekt Telefon, kino i cyborgi. Relacje rozwoju technologii i społeczności niesłyszących w XX i XXI wieku.

Self-reflection and postcolonialism in GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde in Leipzig

Ethnological museums have become subject of research and reflection undertaken by critical studies and cultural anthropology. For several decades there has been ongoing discussion on their colonial past, their relation to art museums, their mission in the age of mass migration, as well as the way they shape the image of non-European communities and cultures and develop systems which classify things.

This paper focuses on an analysis of Werkstatt Prolog (Working Space Prologue) conducted by GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde in Leipzig and presents the self-reflexive and postcolonial character of the museum. I attempt to answer the following question: can a museum that was founded on the colonial past become a space for intercultural meetings for which a reference to the past will be liberating, not paralyzing?  

Alterka – Resistance Money? On “Wymiennik” – community currency Warsaw system

The article describes “Wymiennik” – Warsaw system which uses the alternative currency “alterka”. The main aim of the paper is to think over how the creators of the initiative understand their resistance to consumption practices and to what extent their activism leads to socio-economic change. The categories by Marek Krajewski concerning on nonconformist lifestyles are used; it turned out that the most useful concept is “discreet resistance”. To get knowledge about “Wymiennik” I conducted 12 in-depth interviews and two years of participatory observation, furthermore I analyzed materials published or recommended by the creators of the system. 

Practices of resistance of the contemporary alternative theater on an example of artistic and paratheatrical actions of the Barak Kultury Foundation

The article deals with the problem of resistance practices used by artists and animators of the contemporary scene of independent theaters, with particular emphasis on the activities of the Barak Kultury Foundation in Poznań, in which the Ba-Ku Theater functions. These contemporary practices of contention include broad artistic and extra-theatrical activities, which are an expression of rebellion, against important social issues such as the problem of ethnic minorities, sexual and disabled people, pollution and environmental degradation, excessive consumerism. 

Art not oil. Art activism by Liberate Tate

In her article the author analyses the activity of Liberate Tate collective, which was founded in 2010 with the aim to end sponsorship of Tate Gallery by BP oil company. This example of alliance between art and activism may be considered in two ways: in the context of the relationship between the institution and the artists who attempt to transform the museums, and also through the art of protest against the oil corporation responsible for environment exploitation. The activity of Liberate Tate is compared with others forms of protest, such as Occupy Wall Street or the fight against Dakota Access Pipeline. The framework of interpretation is indicated by the complex reliance between art, activism and neoliberal capitalism. The ideas of delirium and resistance proposed by Gregory Sholette appear to be particularly useful in explaining the given relations, as well as the notion of practicing deindividualization by activists, who build various alliances and communities of those engaged in creating the envisioned museum. 

Jolanta Rzeźnicka-Krupa, Społeczne ontologie niepełnosprawności. Ciało, tożsamość, performatywność, Oficyna Wydawnicza „Impuls”, Kraków 2019, ss. 194.

Junko Theresa Mikuriya, Historia światła. Idea fotografii, przeł. P. Nowakowski, Universitas, Kraków 2018, ss. 216.

Achille Mbembe, Polityka wrogości. Nekropolityka, przeł. Urszula Kropiwiec (Polityka Wrogości) oraz Katarzyna Bojarska (Nekropolityka), Wydawnictwo Karakter, Kraków 2018, ss. 256.

Dorota Koczanowicz, Pozycja smaku. Jedzenie w granicach sztuki, Instytut Badań Literackich PAN, Warszawa 2018, ss. 359.