Paul Virilio and the Arts

Special about Virilio’s aesthetic approach is his understanding of politics as a unique aesthetic position. The question of power in art thus becomes redundant, since artistic expression already, the employed technical means as well as the correlating stylistic possibilities are a sign of a political position. Thus, the question of art’s possibilities is asked anew. Does the power of those who create art not lie in a position of resistance rather than a supposed strategy of so-called enlightenment? Is it not, rather, a conservative, warning attitude that stands autonomously against a self-accelerating modernity? Does modern and contemporary art have the possibility of escaping the dictates of the machine, apparatus, and technical codes? The symposium accompanying the exhibition will discuss and seek answers to these questions.
 

Speakers

John Armitage, Marc Augé, Frank Böckelmann, Sara Daniel, Peter Gente, Enrico Ghezzi, Andrea Gnam, Marina Gržinić, Barbara Könches, Maurizio Lazzarato, Claus Morisch, Claude Parent, Jürgen Ploog, Gisela Straehle, Bernard Tschumi, Daniel Tyradellis, Andrej Ujica, Peter Weibel