Delirium and Resistance Activist Art and the Crisis of Capitalism

Capitalist crises do not begin within art, but art reflects and even amplifies their effects. The dizzying prices achieved by artists who pander to the financial elites, the proliferation of museums that contribute to the global competition between cities to attract capital, and the strange relationship between art and the rampant gentrification that restructures the urban landscape: these are the obvious features of art's subservience to capitalism. There is a flipside, however, which shows art playing an increasingly important role in resistance to austerity and the prefiguration of a different world. Delirium and Resistance engages in critical dialogue with artists' collectives, counter-institutions and activist groups, while reflecting on the inequalities of neoliberal culture. It draws on over thirty years of critical debates and practices both in and beyond the art world to historicise and advocate for the art activist tradition that radically entangles the visual arts with political struggles.