Künstlerische Poiesis ft. Menschenrechte ft. künstlerische Poiesis

Abstract

This text works out the poietic i.e. the pro-ductive dimension of artistic positions, taking as example the artistic operations of Studio Staal and GeheimRat.com, their involvement with the political theories of Sheyla Benhabib, Judith Butler, Chantal Mouffe and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, as well as Giorgio Agamben’s historical-theoretical examination, which looks at a superimposition of the concept of poiesis with practice until the point of its utter disappearance under aesthetical-capitalistic imprint. These artistic positions yield new horizons of „jurisgenerative politics“ (Benhabib) in connection with human rights, which can lead to developments of the law, rule and legal changes, as well as to changed jurisdictions that can be observed also in regards to the constant expansion of the canon of human rights starting from 1948. They are therefore to be understood in the broadest and truest sense as actio popularis, since they are representative of the interests of the community. With New World Summit and Der Wert der Menschenrechte (The Value of Human Rights) – digital_series#no.217241, two versions of artistic poiesis are presented, correlating with Judith Butlers’ insistence that the platforms of politics themselves be made into the centre of political action (2016), in order to enable anyone to make use of „the right to have rights“ (Hannah Arendt). For that purpose they make use of fantasies about art’s freedom from domination, power and rule, and by means of a double operation of simultaneous suspension and affirmation of established forms, they create a version of empowerment which is able to permanently remain within the political/artistical. The poetic i.e. the pro-ductive potential of both artistic examples is analyzed in order to identify six sections of an artistic poiesis, among others in regards to aesthetics, and to conclude with concrete proposals for future research projects and initiatives. The text opens with examples of artistic poiesis enriched by a variety of artistic examples and exhibitions dealing with the subject of human rights from the time prior to Enwezor’s 2002 Documenta 11, from Documenta 11 itself and from the time after it, such as the exhibition The Family of Man, curated in 1955 by photographer Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, reviewed by Roland Barthes in his collection of essays Mythologies and inscribed into the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.