New Realities. New F(r)ictions. Social Spaces of Action of Art between Encounter and Dialogue

Abstract

In this essay, we assume that we are currently dealing with a renewed structural change of the public sphere. This change has considerable consequences for the sphere of the political. For the crisis of representativeness and the fragmentation of the public sphere into antagonistically structured worlds aimed at self-presentation and self-affirmation are eroding the common ground that is necessary for political as well as for aesthetic performative acts to be asserted and appreciated. Against this background, it is necessary to take a closer look at art forms that want to contribute to a socio-political transformation beyond performative interventions on the “stage of the public”. Instead of focusing on attempts to remix the already hopelessly crisis-ridden dominant relations of representation, and instead of attempts to propagate counter-hegemonies, we focus on community based arts. We argue that the political strength of this new genre lies not so much in an expected “social impact” or in the revival of a dying we-identity, but rather in the re-creation of an immediate sociality through bodily encounter and empowerment of dialogical responsiveness among citizens in face-to-face interactions.