ABSTRACT
This book insists on the political relevance and viability of artistic and activist practices under neoliberal rationality. Its primary task is to ask yet again what are the roles and goals of a critical theory and practice of art and photography today. It analyzes the works of contemporary art alongside projects of visual activism, by pointing to a shared domain of epistemological, material, and perceptual concerns in contemporary cultural production. Chief among these is the rethinking of critique itself not as an authoritarian rational process of unveiling of the realities of exploitation behind deceptive appearances, but as a collective operation that triggers a movement of images and gestures in order to retain appearance as a public realm of contestation. Citizenship is configured as produced by private acts within the family sphere, rather than as a condition of social membership in which subjects publicly debate the implementation of universal rights.
