Art and Revolution: Transversal Activism in the Long Twentieth Century

Gerald Raunig has written an alternative art history of the "longtwentieth century," from the Paris Commune of 1871 to the turbulentcounter-globalization protests in Genoa in 2001. Meticulously moving from theSituationists and Sergei Eisenstein to Viennese Actionism and thePublixTheatreCaravan, Art and Revolution takes on the history of revolutionarytransgressions and optimistically charts an emergence from its tales of tragicfailure and unequivocal disaster. By eloquently applying Deleuze and Guattari's ideaof the "machine," Raunig extends the poststructuralist theory ofrevolution through to the explosive nexus of art and activism. As hopeful as it isincisive, Art and Revolution encourages a new generation of artists and thinkers torefuse to participate in the tired prescriptions of marketplace and authority andinstead create radical new methods of engagement. Raunig develops an indispensable, contemporary conception of political change--a conception that transcends theoutmoded formulations of insurrection and resistance. Too much blood and ink hasbeen shed for the art machines and the revolutionary machines to remain separate.Gerald Raunig is a philosopher and art theorist who lives in Vienna, Austria.