New text published: "Die Letzte Generation im Museum" by Kerstin Schankweiler

In a novel manifestation of civil disobedience, climate activists have embarked on spectacular actions targeting famous works of art since 2022. In this essay Kerstin Schankweiler discusses the series of protest initiatives, starting with the cake-throwing incident aimed at Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in the Louvre in Paris, and contextualizes them with historical precedents and art practices. Emphasis is placed on the images generated during these events and their subsequent dissemination. The appropriation of icons from art history not only serves as a disruption of bourgeois escapism but also compensates for the loss of iconic protest images in digital image culture. The re-staging of the artworks for the purposes of the climate movement represents an attempt to once again incorporate the singularity of the artwork and imbue it with efficacy within the current landscape of image protests. Simultaneously, these protests inscribe themselves onto the artworks and enrich them.

Published in: Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen, vol. 37, no. 3, 2024, pp. 324-334. Editors: Ricarda Drüeke und Simon Teune. (Access via your institution, text in German with English abstract)