“Emotions in political contemporary art: anger, grief and empathy”
Keywords:
artistic affects, anger, grief, empathy, political art, aesthetics of careAbstract
This article reflects on the moral and political role that three different emotions (anger, grief and empathy) play in also rather different forms of political contemporary art. Thereby, the paper tries to show their contribution to the meaning of artworks and projects, insofar as emotions integrate the aesthetic dimension of art. But, most of all, their relevance for any social impact of art is emphasized. Furthermore, the range of what is usually understood as political art is broadened beyond artistic activism, and emotions for a long time considered “soft”, even “feminine”, are vindicated as part of what is already confirmed as a transformation of the emotional regime of contemporary art.
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