Dr. Gurur Ertem
Promises and Pitfalls of ‘Political’ Curating in Live Arts
© Gurur ErtemDrawing on the work of the Marxist feminist political theorist Nancy Fraser and observations in contemporary artistic and curatorial practices in live arts, this talk is an invitation to think about the limitations of the current preoccupation with identity politics in the field. It argues that artistic and curatorial activism is often based on a narrow definition of diversity and inclusion. While the current focus on including marginalized voices, bodies, movements, stories, and bodies of knowledge is a welcome development in the arts, it is counterproductive to treat why these marginalizations exist in the first place as singular issues unrelated to the global capitalist order. An emancipatory response to the constituents of the global crisis such as planetary meltdown, rising precarity, declining living standards, racialized and sexualized violence, authoritarianism, and militarization, needs to connect the multiple social movements and artistic practices in a manner that is especially sensitive to class dynamics and the affective dimensions of capitalism and politics.