On Claims of Radicality in Contemporary Art

Thanks to
Lorenzo Cardim for pointing out this conversation to me on art and radical politics.
Lorenzo is an artist TO WATCH OUT FOR!!  I was happy to meet him earlier this year through his work with Red Dirt Studio in Mt. Rainier, Maryland

"Lorenzo Cardim is currently working on a Master of Fine Arts degree at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, California. Cardim’s sculptures and performances use philosophical theory as a guide for teasing the absurd out of a view of the human condition. Recent works include That Which Is Seen and That Which is Unseen (slave of desire), a performance featuring a 39-foot puppet of Queen Victoria that slowly ascended from floor to ceiling of the Corcoran museum’s main level atrium, its movement punctuating cycles of birth and labor. The piece responds to the writings of David Hume while referencing Frédéric Bastiat’s Parable of the Broken Window."

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On Claims of Radicality in Contemporary Art

e-flux conversationshttp://conversations.e-flux.com/t/on-claims-of-radicality-in-contemporary-art/959

"This first conversation is on the relationship between art and radical politics today. Despite the artworld's ever-increasing integration into the realms of high capital and the culture industry, much of its discourse currently centres on vehement claims regarding the revolutionary nature of contemporary practice. Especially in the context of large-scale exhibition projects, curators regularly claim that contemporary art has the capacity to open up a space for social transformation, often implicitly or explicitly using the language of the radical left. This conversation seeks to probe these claims – to consider what historical circumstances might have led to their prominence in recent times."

Converation convened by:  David Hodge, Hamed Yousefi
Contributors:  Pil and Galia Kollectiv, Nina Power, John Roberts and Gregory Sholette.