ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the theory and practice of live art, a genre and cultural sector that exemplifies non-or anti-representational modalities and at its best enacts a radical counter-hegemonic politics. It begins by wrestling with the idea of the political not to delimit its potential but in order to clarify what claims are being made when aesthetic encounters are regarded as having political effects. The chapter addresses in more detail what live art is and does, mapping its genealogies and contemporary expressions in relation to wider political shifts before interrogating the relationship between contemporary live art practice and the enactment of day-to-day politics. It then draws on insights from Jacques Ranciere and Davide Panagia, who demonstrate the necessity of aesthetic distribution and disruption for politics to occur. The chapter considers the subversive possibilities of festivals, including their intervention in the aesthetic spatio-temporal organisation of the city.
