Artistic protest strategies: The critical art ensemble

Peter, Nina

The “Critical Art Ensemble” (CAE), founded in 1987, is a globally acting group of artists who aim at exploring “the intersections between art, critical theory, technology, and political activism”[1]. A whole range of different artworks (performances, installations, posters, but also ‘traditional exhibitions’ in museums and galleries) as well as a number of theoretical monographs and pamphlets serve to address controversially discussed social topics, such as the effect of the spread of high-speed Information and Communication Technologies, the use of biotechnological weapons in contemporary warfare or the genetical modification of food. The members of the CAE understand their artistic work as an “attack on the authoritarian policies of the capital” and as part of a permanent “resistance to authoritarian structures”. It is the distinctiveness of the artistic forms of this ‘resistance’ I want to examine in my presentation. The presentation will be divided into two parts. Firstly I will give an overview of different artistic protest strategies developed and deployed by the CAE, focusing on 1) the concept of ‘Electronic Civil Disobedience’ by the ‘tactical’ use of media; 2) the activation and integration of the audience; 3) the blurring of art, reality, theory and politics. Each of these aspects will be briefly illustrated by exemplary artworks and situated within the theoretical framework of the CAE. Secondly, I will trace back the above-named strategies of political resistance to earlier artistic protest-movements (Dadaism, Fluxus and Situationism) in order to develop some general hypothesis on the potential of art as a medium of 'counter-discourse' and protest.

[1]See the group’s hompage: http://www.critical-art.net/.

56.2 Artistic protest strategies: The critical art ensemble