Understanding
POETICS OF RESISTANCE IS A PUBLIC PROGRAMME AND A SHARED RESEARCH ENDEAVOUR. FACING SEISMIC CHANGES IN POLITICAL DIALOGUE, CENSORSHIP, AND THE MARKET APPROPRIATION OF RESISTANCE, POETICS OF RESISTANCE
SEEKS ARTISTIC PRACTICES OF RESISTANCE WHOSE POLITICAL AGENCY LIES ON THE PARTICULAR SOCIAL AND AESTHETIC AFFORDANCES OF ART. OPEN TO INTERPRETATION, IMAGINATIVE, NON-PRESCRIPTIVE AND EXPERIENTIAL, ARTISTIC ACTION BECOMES A SPECIAL FIELD OF RESISTANCE IN TIMES OF POLARIZATION AND VIOLENCE.
SEEKS ARTISTIC PRACTICES OF RESISTANCE WHOSE POLITICAL AGENCY LIES ON THE PARTICULAR SOCIAL AND AESTHETIC AFFORDANCES OF ART. OPEN TO INTERPRETATION, IMAGINATIVE, NON-PRESCRIPTIVE AND EXPERIENTIAL, ARTISTIC ACTION BECOMES A SPECIAL FIELD OF RESISTANCE IN TIMES OF POLARIZATION AND VIOLENCE.
Understanding
Poetics of Resistance is a public programme and a shared research endeavour. Facing seismic changes in political dialogue, censorship, and the market appropriation of resistance, Poetics of Resistance seeks artistic practices of resistance whose political agency lies on the particular social and aesthetic affordances of art. Open to interpretation, imaginative, non-prescriptive and experiential, artistic action becomes a special field of resistance in times of polarization and violence. This project is especially interested in practices that neither symbolise the political within controlled art reception environments, nor choose the direct moral language of activism. Poetics of Resistance will experiment with the subversive potential of neological gestures, practical metaphors, spaces of self-determination, and insertions in everyday social circuits.
Exploring the poetics of resistance implies a resistance that is po(i)etic. In Ancient Greek, poiesis is the act of bringing something into being that did not exist before. Poetics of Resistance is interested in aesthetic practices that conjugate social and material systems into new meanings. We have found five guiding aspects to define this subject.
01. These are artistic gestures that don't verbalize for or against political ideals.
02. They do not engage in cultural or political education or direct awareness-raising.
03. Instead, they destabilize orders through suggestion and magic; irony, metaphors, juxtapositions, rhythm, in the form of experiences.
04. That is, they create new images and meanings, rather than reproducing conventional semantics.
05. Finally, they operate in lived social spaces, rather than stages and exhibition spaces.
Resistance practices are often captured by markets and depoliticised, especially in the post-industrial West. Over the past four decades, artistic and social movements have become intertwined with technological and service sectors, which have integrated transformative ideals such as diversity and empowerment into the neoliberal economy. In the process of economic and state appropriation of resistance, aesthetic strategies of political expression become trends, mottos become slogans, and mutual aid becomes services– sustaining, instead of destabilising, the course of oppressive structures, labour precarization, tokenization, commodification and widening economic inequality. In this context, non-conforming dissident practices have been increasingly censored and suppressed, revealing the limits of liberal principles within neoliberal regimes. Meanwhile, outside of the Western political stage or often in diasporic contexts, many people and communities practice resistance that is not legible through the conventional ideas of political action and of who can participate in political debate. These are modes of resistance as existence, through cultivation, mutual aid, subversive hybridity and opacity. As artistic practices relate to such practices, they also risk incorporating them into art's hegemonic infrastructures. Through Poetics of Resistance, we propose to discuss forms and strategies of artistic resistance that reject appropriation and that address people and social systems through encounters, irritation and affect in personal and public environments.
The monthly discussion group Talking Poetics of Resistance is the core of the research project. The group meets to read theory contributions, experience artworks, listen to guest speakers, and discuss aesthetic political practices.
Spanning two years, the public programme of Poetics of Resistance includes a programme of public interventions (2026), a series of artistic projects connected to the self-organized cultural space Make-up e.V. (2026-2027), a summer school (2027), an exhibition (2027), and further public gatherings and debates. Featuring many different practices, Poetics of Resistance aims to examine and encourage forms of artistic and political agency that embrace complexity and confront hegemony with humour, courage and tenderness.
Exploring the poetics of resistance implies a resistance that is po(i)etic. In Ancient Greek, poiesis is the act of bringing something into being that did not exist before. Poetics of Resistance is interested in aesthetic practices that conjugate social and material systems into new meanings. We have found five guiding aspects to define this subject.
01. These are artistic gestures that don't verbalize for or against political ideals.
02. They do not engage in cultural or political education or direct awareness-raising.
03. Instead, they destabilize orders through suggestion and magic; irony, metaphors, juxtapositions, rhythm, in the form of experiences.
04. That is, they create new images and meanings, rather than reproducing conventional semantics.
05. Finally, they operate in lived social spaces, rather than stages and exhibition spaces.
Resistance practices are often captured by markets and depoliticised, especially in the post-industrial West. Over the past four decades, artistic and social movements have become intertwined with technological and service sectors, which have integrated transformative ideals such as diversity and empowerment into the neoliberal economy. In the process of economic and state appropriation of resistance, aesthetic strategies of political expression become trends, mottos become slogans, and mutual aid becomes services– sustaining, instead of destabilising, the course of oppressive structures, labour precarization, tokenization, commodification and widening economic inequality. In this context, non-conforming dissident practices have been increasingly censored and suppressed, revealing the limits of liberal principles within neoliberal regimes. Meanwhile, outside of the Western political stage or often in diasporic contexts, many people and communities practice resistance that is not legible through the conventional ideas of political action and of who can participate in political debate. These are modes of resistance as existence, through cultivation, mutual aid, subversive hybridity and opacity. As artistic practices relate to such practices, they also risk incorporating them into art's hegemonic infrastructures. Through Poetics of Resistance, we propose to discuss forms and strategies of artistic resistance that reject appropriation and that address people and social systems through encounters, irritation and affect in personal and public environments.
The monthly discussion group Talking Poetics of Resistance is the core of the research project. The group meets to read theory contributions, experience artworks, listen to guest speakers, and discuss aesthetic political practices.
Spanning two years, the public programme of Poetics of Resistance includes a programme of public interventions (2026), a series of artistic projects connected to the self-organized cultural space Make-up e.V. (2026-2027), a summer school (2027), an exhibition (2027), and further public gatherings and debates. Featuring many different practices, Poetics of Resistance aims to examine and encourage forms of artistic and political agency that embrace complexity and confront hegemony with humour, courage and tenderness.
