Monthly articles for Mugalari

Between April 2010 and January 2011 we have been writing a monthly article on poltics, art and culture, for Mugalari, the cultural supplement of Basque newspaper Gara. A selection of articles can now be read online, at our new website: http://postpolitikak.org:

My friends, there are no friends

Save the males, a project by Tinkebell

Captivated, the visitors of a fair of Eco-fashion and sustainable design gather around a cardboard box, inside which 61 cute little chicks are scampering about. Meanwhile, on the other side, a girl with a pleasant smile explains to them what her project “Save the males” is about. She is an artist, known as Tinkebell, and the chicks, all male, will need the help of those present, if they are not to end up in the shredder. It is a fate that would have been inevitable, had they been left at the poultry farm where she picked them up earlier, and one they would have shared with the 31 million chicks that are born as males each year in the Netherlands.

The interrogation room

Esculturas públicas envueltas en plástico negro como protesta.

In the Netherlands, cultural workers are on the streets, protesting against the pending cuts on government funding for art and culture. In the newspapers, meanwhile, their opponents have put the question of whether art is elitist back on the agenda again. Time for a little introspection.

Possessed

Visitors picking up their copy of "Untitled (Wall Structure) by Sol LeWitt.

What does it mean to possess a work of art, when all it really consists of is an idea? The Danish artists' collective SUPERFLEX provocatively exploits the legacy of conceptual art in order to find out, and in the process reveal the limitations of current intellectual property laws.

“We need spaces that allow people to struggle with each other for their meaning.”

Arnlod Reijndorp

In this interview, Arnold Reijndorp, independent researcher on urbanism and urban culture, looks back on his visit to Basque Country, realised a few weeks ago within the framework of a study trip to different European cities, a trip he helped organise together with The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture for a group of cultural professionals.

Shhhhhh... Artists at work.

The Trainee. A work by Pilvi Takala

On how to resist the libertarian appropriation of notions of creativity and flexibility in order to turn labourers into "freelancing subcontractors", and how to participate in a strike with an artistic practice that produces nothing.

Drawing the inbetweens

It's a small world after all

In his definition of political art, Walter Benjamin once said that the important question was not how a work of art stands in relation to the relationships of production of a period, but how it stands in them. Taking this as a guideline, we take another look at the graphic novel "Pyongyang" (2003) by Guy Deslisle.

At your service

Willem IV on a horse

What is the purpose of art in a free society? The construction of three monuments serves as a point of departure for a reflection on the relationship between ideology and art in the so-called progressive democracies: The bust of Pim Fortuyn in Rotterdam, Bruce Lee's statue in Mostar, and the "Monument of the chased-off citizen of Rotterdam", which was never built.

The art of trolling: Arguing for the sake of conflict as opposed to the seeking of truth

Anonymous. Because none of us are as cruel as all of us

A portrait of the Troll, that prankster and troublemaker of the Internet, who, under the cloak of anonymity, abuses the egalitarian and democratic potential of on-line communication by posting inflammatory messages on discussion forums, chat rooms or blogs, with the sole intention of provoking an emotional response.