Art and rebellion : the struggle for freedom and autonomy at the Ljubljana 2020/2021 protests

Grafenauer, Petja (author), Tepina, Daša (author)

The aim of this article is to document, contextualise, and theorise the rebellious actions carried out by artists in Slovenia in 2020–2021, and to present these actions as a continuation of the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century. We focus on the diverse actions and protests carried out by a strong alliance of artists, anti-capitalists, anti-fascists, ecological movements, and other civil structures that continue to challenge the oppressive autocratic powers. When art becomes confrontational, it fights for its autonomy and its production can achieve an aesthetic revolutionary potential. So when it demands the impossible, it fights for its space and position and becomes life itself, it becomes avant-garde. We could therefore say that the politics of aesthetics has a way of producing its own politics, proposing to re-arrange politics, re-configure art as a political issue or assert itself as true politics.

• Language: English
• Keywords: protests, autonomous zones, visual art, Petja Grafenauer, Daša Tepina, bike protests, Ljubljana, ADDK, autonomous factory Rog, protest art, Slovenian art, social movements, COVID-19 pandemic, autonomy, aesthetic revolutionary potential
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: ALUO - Academy of Fine Arts and Design
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2022
• Number of pages: Str. 409-428
• Numbering: Vol. 36, no. 5
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-143954
• UDC: 7.01:316.485.22
• ISSN on article: 1475-5297
• DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2022.2132025
• COBISS.SI-ID: 127341827
• Publication date in RUL: 23.01.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Third text
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1475-5297
• COBISS.SI-ID: 521316121

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: protesti, avtonomne cone, vizualna umetnost

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: J6-3144
• Name: Protesti, umetniške prakse in kultura spomina v postjugoslovanskem kontekstu