What Will the Next Revolution Be Like by Zdenka Badovinac

8/7/2019 What Will the Next Revolution Be Like by Zdenka Badovinac

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/what-will-the-next-revolution-be-like-by-zdenka-badovinac 1/12

Zdenka Badovinac

What Will theNext Revolution

Be Like?

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWhen we try to resolve the problems of thepresent, we often look to the past. One chapterfrom the unfinished past is, without doubt, theproject of communism. What can culturalrevolution have in common with potentialsolutions to the current financial crisis? Todaythe worldÕs most esteemed economists andsociologists assert that the key to solving the

economic crisis lies not in some new mechanicaldevice, but rather in the creativity of as manypeople as possible and the development of newideas.1 The idea of the socialist culturalrevolution was, in fact, based on the deliberateeducation of the masses: on giving them theknowledge and skills they needed to participateas fully as possible in the public affairs of thecommunity.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊNumerous Eastern European artists (amongothers) have recently been reflecting on thenotion that communism is a yet-unfinished

project; for them, this idea is also part of theircultural tradition. While we must not lumptogether all those in Eastern Europe Ð fromserious artists to pop entertainers Ð who, in oneway or another, are today trying to revive thememory of communism, and with it the Partisanresistance movement, we can perhaps find incurrent events a number of shared motivationsbehind this heightened interest in the past.Among these, certainly, are the worsening socialposition of workers, the rise of nationalism, andthe rightist attempt to equate communism withfascism. The response to all this is extremelyvaried, ranging from nostalgic retrospection toserious reflection on the future of the idea ofcommunism. Here I am primarily interested inartists who see this tradition as offering greatpotential for designing alternatives to thedominant forms of globalization. These artistsare returning to their local tradition not becausethey want to resist the homogenizing power ofglobalism, but just the opposite: because theywant to draw as much attention as possible tothe universal potential of the unfinished past.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊDespite the more or less cruel reality of life

in Eastern Europe Ð or indeed because of it Ðpeople in these countries were constantly talkingabout the future, about communism as the idealsociety that would follow the period of ÒrealsocialismÓ then taking place. Boris Groys saysthat as a result of the strong presence of thisfuture dimension, post-colonial cultural theory isof little use in the study of Eastern European art:

Although the post-communist subjecttakes the same route from enclosure toopenness as his post-colonial counterpart,

he moves along this path in quite theopposite direction Ð against the flow of

e-flux journal #6 Ñ may 2009 Ê Zdenka Badovinac

What Will the Nex

t Revolution Be Like?

01/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



ÊWalter Benjamin,ÊMondrianÊ '63-'96, lecture held in Cankarjev dom and organized by Gallery ŠKUC, Ljubljana, 1986.Photo: L‡szl— Moholy-Nagy.

02/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



Laibach, Interview, June 1983.

time. While the post-colonial subjectproceeds from the past into the present,the post-communist enters the presentfrom the future. . . . Ultimately, communismis nothing more than the most extreme andradical manifestation of militantmodernism, of the belief in progress and ofthe dream of an enlightened avant-gardeacting in total unison, of utter commitment

to the future.2

Inke Arns writes about the difference betweentwo types of Eastern European art that bothcome to grips with the discourse of the avant-garde and socialist realism through a strategy ofrepetition and appropriation. Using examplesfrom Soviet post-utopianism (Ilya Kabakov andVictor Pelevin) and the Yugoslav retro-avant-garde (Neue Slowenische Kunst, MladenStilinović, and Kazimir Malevich of Belgrade),

both from the 1980s, Arns distinguishes between

the post-utopian attitude toward the past of afailed utopia that is now over and the retro-avant-gardeÕs treatment of an unfinished pastand its still-open conflictedness.3

Recurrence and RepetitionQuite a few writers today, all connected invarious ways to Eastern Europe, are devotingthemselves to the question of repetition, and indoing so rely on similar philosophical (Deleuzeand Kierkegaard) and psychoanalytic (Freud andLacan) traditions. Like Arns, Mladen Dolardefines repetition in contradistinction toremembering. Both Arns and Dolar citeKierkegaardÕs timely thought: ÒRepetition and

recollection are the same movement, only inopposite directions; for what is recollected isrepeated backwards, whereas genuine repetitionis recollected forwards.Ó4 In his text ÒAutomatismof Repetition: Aristotle, Kierkegaard, Lacan,ÓDolar discusses several thinkers who explainrepetition through paradox: that which isrepeated cannot be ascribed an identity(Deleuze); that which is repeated is the

incapability of repetition (Kierkegaard). Whensomething is repeated, then, we encounter apresent reality that demands of us an activeposition. In his discussion of LacanÕs treatmentof repetition, Dolar underscores precisely thisencounter with the real.

Psychoanalysis is not about rememberingthe past, reintegrating banned memoriesand censored chapters, but rather aboutthe capacity to change the past andrelegate it to becoming. It espouses the

great paradox that Kierkegaard tried topromote: that the way to change, and tofreedom, to use this highly laden word,leads through repetition.5

Groys, too, refers to Kierkegaard when he speaksabout the new in art:

But for Kierkegaard the new is a differencewithout a difference or a difference beyonddifference Ð a difference which we areunable to recognize because it is notrelated to any pre-given structural code. Asan example of such difference, Kierkegaarduses the figure of Jesus Christ. Indeed,Kierkegaard states that the figure of Christ

03/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



NSK Passport. Photo: Haris Hararis

04/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



initially looked like that of every otherordinary human being at that historicaltime.6

A large part of the (post)Yugoslav neo-avant-garde over the past thirty years has understoodthe new as the repetition of that which visuallyalready exists. The Belgrade MalevichÕs ÒLastFuturist ExhibitionÓ (Belgrade and Ljubljana,

1986) and ÒThe Armory ShowÓ (Ljubljana, 1986)with its copies of Mondrian, raised questionsabout the differences between the original andits repetition. The same is true of the first lectureby ÒWalter BenjaminÓ (Ljubljana, 1986).7 In thislecture, entitled ÒMondrian Õ63ÐÕ96,Ó Benjaminspeaks of two alleged copies of the sameMondrian painting (signed as Mondrian, butdated 1983) and how they differ from theoriginal:

Even those so-called answers which weÕve

arrived at in this lecture are onlyconditional answers. They are based onassumptions and not on facts. The only truefacts are these paintings which stand infront of us. Such simple paintings and suchcomplicated questions. We still donÕt knowwho is the author of these paintings, whenthey originated and what is their meaning.They rely neither on the co-ordinates oftime, nor on co-ordinates of identity, nor onco-ordinates of meaning. They simplyhover, and the only comprehensible senseof their existence which we can accept withcertainty are these questions themselves.8

Such a statement is not so far from David HumeÕsthesis, quoted by Deleuze: ÒRepetition changesnothing in the object repeated, but does changesomething in the mind which contemplates it.Ó9

Eastern European art has its own tradition ofrepetition, and unless we take this tradition intoconsideration, it will be difficult to understandthe current art practices under discussion. Forexample, the Yugoslav retro-avant-garde has,from the very beginning, always made clear

reference to the Russian avant-garde and itsutopian revolutionary context.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWhat I would like to particularly emphasizehere are the universal elements in the art of therevolution, which itself had an internationalcharacter (and which, unfortunately and bycontrast, ended in severe isolation). Abstractionin itself was a visual message about this artÕsuniversal nature, and its distinctive shapes ÐMalevichÕs black square and cross, for instance Ðhave been repeated ad infinitum by both thepost-utopians and the retro-avant-garde. We

might also understand such pure geometricforms as being easily repeatable, which makes

them easier to distribute. Regardless of howbadly things failed, with the Russian avant-gardewe must always remember that these repeatableforms were intended to foster the greaterdemocratization of art by providing a universallyaccessible formal language.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThe tradition of socially critical art, then,includes both impersonal forms as well asprocesses borrowed from real life. Here of course

it is necessary to emphasize the reality that ismost accessible to the masses: the mass media.One of the retro-avant-gardeÕs most provocativeactions involving the media occurred in 1983,when members of the group Laibach (part ofNeue Slowenische Kunst, or NSK) gave aninterview to TV Slovenia. Instead of answeringthe reporter in the usual way, they responded byassuming the roles of particular totalitariantypes and reciting their answers in animpersonal, alienated manner, which baffled thepublic and created a huge scandal. Back then,

LaibachÕs practice of provocation and alienatedconsciousness was much riskier than, say, thedistribution of alternative content throughcounterfeits of such media as The New YorkTimes, which the leftist group The Yes Mencarried out last year in the United States. Thisaction was recently copied by the anti-globalization German group Attac, who publisheda counterfeit of the respected Hamburg weeklyDie Zeit with content that described the positiveresults of solutions to the financial crisis,hunger, and the worldÕs ecological problems.Despite their differences, all these actions arecharacterized by a repetition that cannot be fullycontrolled and that includes as an integral partthe response of the real.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊA similar encounter with reality andunpredictability also characterizes severalactions by Eastern European artists in recentyears. These artists are not so much interested inrepeating knowledge about local culturalgestures or memorializing them as they are inreactivating past conflicts and testing theirvitality in the present moment. In the early1990s, the Neue Slowenische Kunst State in

Time was founded and soon began issuing itsown passports, which were remarkably likegenuine passports. In the years since these NSKpassports have been requested by many peopleÐ mainly, to be sure, art world representatives Ðwho by becoming members of the NSK Statebecame at the same time voluntary participantsin an art scenario. At the time NSK began issuingits passports, there were many new states inEurope and war was raging in the Balkans Ðcircumstances that led to increased interest inthese artistic copies of official documents, at

times out of entirely practical motives. Most ofthe passports were issued in Sarajevo, largely to


What Will the Nex


05/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



IRWIN, NSK Passport Holders, 2007-2008. Photo: Haris Hararis.

members of the art world who used them as anadditional ID; many people out of necessity evenrisked using their NSK passport as a substitutefor a real one. A few years ago, NSKÕs Internetaddress began receiving passport requests frompeople in Nigeria who were interested in thepassport solely as a document they could use ina time of crisis. Irwin, one of the groups thatmake up NSK, documented all these stories and

in this way brought them back into the sphere ofart. As the Irwin members point out, all thesedifferent worlds have today become much closerto each other because of contemporarytechnologies, especially the Internet, whichmake access to information possible even inareas that not long ago were quite isolated.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊIn contrast to NSK, which issued its ownpassports, the three artists who renamedthemselves ÒJanez Janša,Ó after the primeminister in SloveniaÕs former right-winggovernment, relinquished their personal

documents, including even their bank cards, anddisplayed them in a gallery for a month; by doingthis, they tested Ð in reality Ð what life was likewithout official documents. They demonstratedthat forms defined by repeatability are anessential condition of our life and work, and thatwhat is increasingly important is the difference

beyond difference: new forms of citizenship thattranscend political and formal identity.

Learning from BrechtEastern European artists are interested ingestures associated with historical situationsthat have certain features we see repeatedtoday. The present financial crisis is in many

aspects comparable to the one in the 1930s,which precipitated both the rise of the fascistmovement and the radicalization of leftistpositions. The Croatian curatorial group What,How & for Whom (WHW), which is curating thisyearÕs Istanbul Biennial, has linked the biennialÕsconcept to the social and political context of thepreÐWorld War II era as treated by Bertolt Brechtin his plays; as WHW points out, this era bears astrong resemblance to the present period ofpseudo-morality, fast-growing poverty, andrepression. The title of this yearÕs biennial is

borrowed from the song ÒWhat Keeps MankindAlive?Ó from BrechtÕs revolutionary Threepenny Opera (1928). In its concept statement, WHWhighlights the fact that BrechtÕs play is itself arepetition, or adaptation, of John GayÕs TheBeggarÕs Opera, from the eighteenth century, theperiod of early industrial capitalism, which in

06/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



Matej Bor, Sebastijan Horvat: Ragged People (Raztrganci)/ Pupils and Teachers (Učenci in učitelji), production: E.P.I. center, MG Ptuj in Cankarjev dom, 2007.Photo: Marcandrea.

07/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



ChtoÊdelat?/What is to be done?, Angry Sandwich-People or In praise of Dialectics, 2005. Installation view from the exhibition "Prekinjenezgodovine/Interrupted Histories," Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, 2006. Photo: Dejan Habicht

08/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



many ways resembled the time of BrechtÕsÒoperaÓ (as Brecht himself pointed out: ÒJust liketwo hundred years ago we have a social order inwhich virtually all levels, albeit in a wider varietyof ways, pay respect to moral principles not byleading a moral life but by living off moralityÓ).10

This was the play in which Brecht established hisconcept of ÒepicÓ (later, ÒdialecticalÓ) theater Ð atheater without illusions, where the actor does

not identify with the role but rather simplypresents it, while the viewer follows thetheatrical event with a critical mind. One of themain principles of BrechtÕs theater is theÒalienation effectÓ (Verfremdungseffekt), whichperformers achieve through songs,commentaries, insertions in dialect and slang,and signs bearing labels, comments, andparaphrases. As the WHW group notes, Brechtused the alienation effect as a means ofexposing and deconstructing the workings of theÒtheatrical apparatusÓ; similarly, in their

repetition of The BeggarÕs Opera in Istanbul, theyare seeking to avoid the traps of theÒcontemporary art apparatus.ÓÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊBrecht did not combat the prominentideological slogans by using critical distance,irony, and rational argument; rather, he usedthese slogans in an even more radical form Ðessentially repeating them Ð and thus exposedtheir meaninglessness. The artists I amdiscussing have a similar relation to repetition,whether of ideological gestures or of modelsfrom the past: they appropriate them in order tomake more visible who it is that speaks throughthem and what message is being conveyed towhom.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊLast year the mandate of SloveniaÕs right-wing government ended; in its re-evaluation ofhistory, this government had begun to equateWWII collaborationism with the resistancemovement and communism with fascism. It isfair to say that this phenomenon is presentthroughout Eastern Europe, and this is thecontext in which we must understand the currentreturn to the history of revolutionary art. TheSlovene theater director Sebastijan Horvat has

staged a number of works in recent years thatmake direct reference to BrechtÕs radical theater.The production that garnered the most attentionwas Ragged People (Raztrganci), the legendaryplay written by Matej Bor in 1943 between thebattles he participated in as a member of theSlovene Partisan army. Horvat gave this play theBrechtian subtitle Pupils and Teachers (Uč enci in

uč itelji ), thus underscoring todayÕs need for adidactic theater and the importance ofcommunicating with the viewer. At the end of theproduction, to everyoneÕs surprise, members of

the Partisan Choir in the audience stood up andstarted singing well-known Partisan songs,

which triggered a powerful emotional responseamong the theatergoers, who showedthemselves to strongly relate not only to thePartisan movement but, as one critic has said, tothe power and ideology of contemporary theateras well.11 By repeating not only the text but alsothe form of an ethically and ideologicallyengaged Partisan play, Horvat (naturally withcertain modernizations, stylizations, and

emphases) was testing todayÕs theater publicand the possibility of a subversive politicaltheater in a time of capitalist and politicalpragmatism.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊIn 2004, the members of a group with theevocative name Chto Delat? (Russian for ÒWhat isto be done?Ó) conducted extensive research inthe contemporary urban setting of a working-class neighborhood in Saint Petersburg that hadbeen the focal point of the workersÕ uprising of1905. The objectives of their research weredirected toward an analysis of possible forms of

resistance against new systems of exploitationand alienation. One of the results was the actionÒAngry Sandwich-People, or, In Praise ofDialectics,Ó which was dedicated to thecentennial of the first Russian revolution. Theaction, which they carried out in collaborationwith local activist groups, took the form of Ð asthe artists themselves put it Ð a theaterhappening in the urban space.12 Participants inthe project sought to visualize one of BrechtÕsmost powerful poems, ÒIn Praise of Dialectics,Óthe verses of which were displayed on sandwichboards worn by the Òprotesters.Ó In their action,the sandwich boards were worn by children,activists, and pensioners, who as a group keptshifting positions and thus changing thearrangement of the signs until, as theythemselves have said, the silent mobility of thepolitical potential erupted in resolute poeticspeech Ð in the end the ÒprotestersÓ recited, inÒSovietÓ fashion, BrechtÕs poem, whichresounded with the empty pathos of therevolutionary past. The repetition of thislanguage made it possible to demonstrate thatthe gestures of the failed revolution had lost all

meaning and that the real political potential nowresided in the consciousness of this fact.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊBrecht also wrote a number of short worksknown as Òdidactic piecesÓ (LerhstŸcke), whichwere primarily intended as lessons forperformers. In order for the actors to gain asgreat a distance as possible from the materialthey were dealing with, they had to followBrechtÕs rules for performing these Òdidacticpieces.Ó Instead of having his actors identify withtheir roles, what Brecht required, among otherthings, was the mechanical repetition of certain

gestures. The identity of the individual wassacrificed for the sake of broadening the


What Will the Nex


09/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



Matej Bor, Sebastijan Horvat: Ragged People (Raztrganci)/ Pupils and Teachers (Učenci in učitelji), production: E.P.I. center, MG Ptuj inCankarjev dom, 2007. Photo: Marcandrea.

common idea. We could say that today EasternEuropean artists are once more putting forwardart as a Òdidactic pieceÓ Ð for artists themselvesand for participants. We would probably beentering into dangerous speculation if we startedruminating about why the communist idea wasso well received in Eastern Europe and why thespirit of collectivism is so strongly felt in thework of Eastern European artists. Here it is

enough to establish certain facts that arenecessary for reflecting on repetition. Theaffinity we see in various Eastern Europeanartists for utopian content, abstract forms, andthe ritual nature of repetition are thecharacteristic features that obscure theirexclusive Eastern European identity, and it ishere they become universal.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊToday we can hardly imagine that somethinglike RussiaÕs October Revolution, whichthoroughly destroyed the tsarist regime in 1917,could ever be repeated. But it is getting easier

and easier for us to take part in protests initiatedby all sorts of blogs, social networking sites, andso forth. Regardless of how trivial their contentmight be, in the end we have the feeling that wehave done something and have even made adifference. All of this is made possible by thesame Internet that is also developing a new

economics of culture through the improveddistribution of content and the sharing ofknowledge. Again we can learn something fromBrecht: to demystify the contemporary means ofcommunication, to recognize the repressivepower of illusions and, stripping these away, toreveal knowledge Ð the tool of the culturalrevolution. If a revolution lies ahead of us, it willbe a cultural revolution that is different from any

that has happened before, for it will take fulladvantage of the educational and informativepower of the new technology, as well as thesocial distress of all the victims of the first globalfinancial crisis.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThough many people proclaim Brecht as thefather of postmodern theater due to hisdemystified illusions and heterogeneous formalmethods, it is crucial to underscore here theessential difference between Brecht andpostmodernism, a difference that also suggestspossible reasons for his renewed relevance

today. Where postmodernism relativizes truth,blurs boundaries between the virtual and thereal, and injects doubt into clear positions andfirm reactions to the social reality, BrechtÕsmechanical repetition was a way of constantlyencountering the real. In place of AristotleÕsfamous catharsis, Brecht employs in his works

10/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



the alienation effect; in place of taking pleasurein illusion, a stance of constant critical thinking.Only thus does contact with the real becomepossible; only thus does repetition becomepossible as the realization of the unpredictable.And it is the unpredictable that enables ourcreativity and freedom. Or, as Mladen Dolar says,repetition Òconcerns the core of our being, it iswhat enslaves us and what brings forth the tiny

crack for subject's freedom.Ó13

And it is onlythrough constant contact with the real that weare able to rid ourselves of vacillation, take a firmposition, and go back to the future.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ×Translated from the Slovene by Rawley Grau.ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊA Chinese translation of this text has been published in issue#7 of Contemporary Art & Investment.

Zdenka Badovinac has been director of Modernagalerija / the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, since1993. She has curated numerous exhibitionspresenting both Slovenian and international artists,and initiated the first collection of Eastern Europeanart, Moderna galerijaÕs 2000+ Arteast Collection. Shehas been systematically dealing with the processes ofredefining history and with the questions of differentavant-garde traditions of contemporary art, startingwith the exhibition ÒBody and the East Ð From the1960s to the PresentÓ (Moderna galerija, Ljubljana,

1998; Exit Art, New York, 2001). She continued in 2000with the first public display of the 2000+ ArteastCollection: Ò2000+ Arteast Collection: The Art ofEastern Europe in Dialogue with the WestÓ (Modernagalerija, 2000); and then with a series of ArteastExhibitions, mostly at Moderna galerija: ÒForm-SpecificÓ (2003); Ò7 Sins: Ljubljana-MoscowÓ (2004;co-curated with Victor Misiano and Igor Zabel);ÒInterrupted HistoriesÓ (2006); ÒArteast Collection2000+23Ó (2006); ÒThe Schengen WomenÓ (GalerijaŠkuc, Ljubljana, part of the Hosting Moderna galerija!project, 2008). Her other major projects includeÒunlimited.nl-3Ó (DeAppel, Amsterdam, 2000),Ò(un)gemalt, Sammlung Essl, Kunst der GegenwartÓ(Klosterneuburg/Vienna, 2002), Òev+a 2004, ImagineLimerick, Open&InvitedÓ (various exhibition venues,Limerick, 2004); ÒDemocracies/the Tirana BiennaleÓ(Tirana, 2005). She was Slovenian Commissioner at theVenice Biennale (1993Ð1997, 2005) and AustrianCommissioner at the Sao Paulo Biennial (2002).


What Will the Nex


11/12

08.25.10 / 19:58:41 UTC



ÊÊÊÊÊÊ1About this there are many,contradictory theories incirculation. The American urbansociologist Richard Floridawrites about a Ònew creativeclassÓ on which the futuresociety of knowledge andcreative economy will be based.The Slovenian author Lenart J.Kučić, on the other hand, pointsout what he refers to as a ÒminoroversightÓ on the part of Florida,namely, that a vast majority of

creative workers live far belowthe standards of an elitecreative-class lifestyle. Here,Kučić refers to criticalsociologists and researcherssuch as Richard Sennett, UlrichBeck, and Naomi Klein. Theartists and projects I refer to inmy text see a certain criticaldistance and social awarenessas inseparably associated withcreativity.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ2Boris Groys, ÒBack from theFuture,Ó in Arteast 2000+: TheArt of Eastern Europe: ASelection of Works for theInternational and National

Collections of Moderna galerijaLjubljana, ed. Zdenka Badovinacand Peter Weibel (Bolzano andVienna: Folio Verlag, 2001).

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ3Inke Arns, Avantgarda v vzvratnem ogedalu: Spremembaparadigem recepcije avant-gardev (nekdanji) Jugoslaviji in Rusijiod 80. let do danes [The avant-garde in the rear-view mirror:Changing the paradigms of thereception of the avant-garde inthe (former) Yugoslavia andRussia from the Õ80s to today](Ljubljana: Maska, 2006), 102.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ4

S¿ren Kierkegaard, ÒRepetition,Óin The Kierkegaard Reader , ed.Jane Chamberlain and JonathanRŽe (Malden, Massachusetts:Blackwell Publishers, 2001), 115.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ5Mladen Dolar, ÒAutomatism ofRepetition: Aristotle,Kierkegaard, Lacan,Óunpublished manuscript.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ6Boris Groys, ÒO novem / On theNew,Ó MÕArs: Č asopis Modernegalerije (2001): 35.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ7

Walter Benjamin is a well-knownphilosopher and theoretician ofart history and originality andreproduction. Many years afterhis tragic death he reappeared,in 1986 with the lectureÒMondrian Õ63ÐÕ96,Ó organizedby the Marxist Centre and theŠKUC Gallery in Ljubljana, andthe next year in the ÒTV GalleryÓexhibition in Belgrade. Hesubsequently published thetheses ÒOn CopyÓ (2003), gave aninterview (ÒMy Dear, This is NotWhat it Seems to Be,Ó 2005), andco-curated (with Inke Arns) theexhibition ÒWhat is Modern Art?Ó(Kunsthaus Bethanien, Berlin,2006).

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ8Walter Benjamin, ÒMondrianÕ63ÐÕ96Ó (manuscript of lectureat Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana,1986, organized by the ŠKUCGallery).

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ9Gilles Deleuze, Difference andRepetition, trans. Paul Patton(London: Continuum, 2004), 90.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ10Bertolt Brecht, ÒOn theThreepenny Opera,Ó in TheThreepenny Opera, tr. and ed.Ralph Manheim and John WillettLondon: Penguin Books, 2008),92; quoted by WHW in theirconcept statement, ÒWhatKeeps Mankind Alive?,Ó availableat http://www.iksv.org/bienal/english/bienal.asp?cid=85.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ11Ignacija J. Fridl, ÒRaztrgani svetin premikanje pogledov,ÓDnevnik, October 18, 2007,Pop/Kultura,http://www.dnevnik.si/debate/komentarji/275577.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ12David Riff and Dimitry Vilensky,ÒPrekinjene zgodovine /Interrupted Histories,Ó ArteastRazstava / Arteast Exhibition,Moderna galerija / Museum ofModerna Art, Ljubljana, 2006.

ÊÊÊÊÊÊ13Dolar, ÒAutomatism ofRepetition.Ó


What Will the Nex


12/12

Documents

What Will the Next Revolution Be Like by Zdenka Badovinac