Aesthics and Politics

I have always more or less been aware of the link between art and politics but I had never really thought about how that relationship worked. After reading the article by Nikos Papastergiadis and Raunig's views on aesthetics and politics I believe that there is a struggle for art to remain critical of politics but not become a tool to be used as propaganda.

Raunig supports this as Papastergiadis states that, "the politics of art is not found in the depiction of political struggles." He believes that the two elements, art and politics rest on the same level, that art should not be inferior to politics. Raunig has a negative view on the avante guarde movements of 1910 and 1960's and in turn believes that they had a harmful effect on the connection between aesthetics and politics. He also argues that the context of politics should always be at the front of an artists mind, not just used as a stimulus for an artwork.

The point that interested me most in the article is when Papastergiadis stated that "commentaries on artistic collectives tend to gloss over mundane practicalities and produce hyperbolic claims in regards the social impact of their aesthetic gestures". With the struggle of the balance between politics and aesthetics I think it is important to note the social reaction to these "gestures" and how the artists perceive them.