Performative Power and Failure of Dissent: Aesthetics of Intervention in Eastern Europe and Beyond

Under (semi-) authoritarian and populist regimes, aesthetical interventions ‒
performances, happenings, rap and pop songs or poetry slams ‒ have become an important part of public utterance and grassroot s agency. Often enough they embody
alternative spaces of ersatz - politics when political debates are lacking, social minorities
are excluded and state propaganda prevails. However, despite different political regimes
and power constellations, what we call “performative interventions” seem to be
flourishing not only in countries such as Russia, Belarus or Poland, where populism or
autocratic political order prevent „direct“ forms of political engagement, but also in so
called democratic countries, i.e. France, Germany or the USA.

The lectures problematize the phenomenon of aesthetical intervention by raising the following questions: In what way and in which public spaces dissent performances become (im)perceptible? What affects do they create and what impact can they exert? What have been the key terms of their political agendas in 2010 s - 2020 s and in which countries and social niches: war? ecology? feminism? democracy?