“Where does the idea that artists should “stay out of politics” come from? » | EUROtoday

Lhe concept that artists should not have the required data or legitimate expertise to talk out on societal points isn’t new. But latest calls for his or her censorship by public and political figures, the Berlinale controversy or the very admission of sure artists of desirous to make “apolitical art”, sign the pressing want for renewed reflection on the worth or credibility of artist-citizens.

After the publication, in 2022, of an article within the Spanish press attributing to me fabricated quotes on the worth of artwork, the irony of scripting this submit at the moment doesn’t escape me any greater than it discourages me from desirous to take part on this reflection, fairly the opposite.

To get again to fundamentals, “politics” comes from historic Greek politikos : “relating to the citizen, to the city”. In historic Greece, the time period designated the whole lot regarding the collective lifetime of town, the affairs widespread to residents, the group of the neighborhood, collective selections on the widespread good. In his PolicyAristotle defines the human being as zôon politikon – a “political animal”, that’s to say “a being made to live in an organized community”. In this logic, all artwork is essentially political, due to this fact, and with out having to take sides, it participates within the development, upkeep and care of the neighborhood, in sustaining the social bond.

So the place does the concept that artists ought to keep out of politics come from?

On the topic of the systematic rejection skilled by those that are misguided and who enterprise into the political area, the English thinker Miranda Fricker would communicate of a “testimonial injustice”which happens “when a prejudice leads a listener to devalue the credibility of a speaker’s words”. The discrediting of artists’ phrases is itself the results of an id prejudice: the stereotype of the “naive” artist – emotional, idealistic, indifferent from sensible “realities”, mental, dreamer. This disqualifying prejudice devalues ​​the flexibility of artists to testify on political points just because they’re perceived as “sensitive rather than rational, creative rather than pragmatic”.

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