170731 UE "Vulnerability?" …and political agency (2021S)

The concept of vulnerability has been employed to counter the idea of the sovereign subject. Insisting on the description of bodies as vulnerable focuses on the foundational ways in which humans relate not only to each other but also to non-humans. However, in public discourse, especially in the connection to COVID-19, the concept has been used to identify so-called vulnerable groups. As Judith Butler critically remarked, it thus reproduces paternalistic power and gives authority to regulatory agencies with interests and constraints of their own: "On the one hand, the state enforces the destruction of basic material conditions for a livable life. On the other hand, it enacts its paternalistic humanitarian discourse reproducing the coupling of vulnerability and passivity" (Judith Butler). The supposed need of protection of certain groups does not lead to social change with the effect of a good life for these identified groups as well, but, on the contrary to more and new forms of restriction and exclusion.

In the seminar we will discuss the concept of vulnerability and vulnerable bodies in relation to contemporary art practices. By doing close readings of art works by artists such as LaToya Ruby Frazier, Arthur Jafa and Stanya Kahn, we will discuss if and how precisely certain art practices might be able to de-link the connection between vulnerability and passivity. Can the presentation of vulnerability instead be the starting point for political-artistic forms of intervention? Can a work of art employ forms of bodily resistance that do not disavow forms of vulnerability but produce and represent bodies as vulnerable and equipped with agency?

Methoden:

- Analyse von künstlerischen Arbeiten (Videokunst, Film, Fotografie)
- Herausarbeiten von Begriffen und Fragestellungen anhand von kulturwissenschaftlichen Texten u.a. von Judith Butler, Tina Campt, André Lepecki.
- Schreibübungen