Introduction: Taking Aesthetics from Resistance to Resilience

Abstract

Under the current conditions, what would be able not just to endure but to contain and counter the pressure neoliberal social and political transformations have put upon communal and artistic life aesthetic activism? In the introduction to Art and Activism in Times of Systemic Crisis, the editors reflect on this question. They draw a general overview of the impact neoliberal transformations have had on the art world in general and on art activism in particular. On the basis of that overview, the editors then introduce the overarching them of the book: a turn from modes of artistic resistance to forms aesthetic resilience. Aesthetic resilience, they suggest, would go beyond resisting the breakdown of art and activism and instead would look for modes of rebuilding new infrastructures for artistic activism.