"Mapping the Slow Revolution" by Solvita Krese
When passing by the building of "Kaņepes Kultūras centrs" ("Kaņepe Culture Centre") I have repeatedly stopped to study the Occupy everything symbol painted on the wall. Once I even took a picture and sent it to a friend living on the other side of the world. The Occupy sign in the centre of Riga etches an unusual feature in the comparatively temperate sociopolitical climate of Latvia and again confirms that we are inevitably connected to the processes in the world and the spirit of resistance is still alive and kicking here.
The history of occupying as a revolutionary tactic goes quite a long way back, from factory occupations in Italy after World War I, the Sorbonne in 1968, to Gezi park in Istanbul this spring. The Occupy Wall Street protest in New York, having turned into global movement within a surprisingly short time, found an echo in Greece, Spain, Israel and other countries, marked a new way of a society relating to politics, and changed the traditional rhetoric of protest. When commenting on the popularity of the Occupy movement, the culture and media theorist McKenzie Wark has said that by occupying a public square close to the Wall Street financial district the Occupy movement has turned it into an allegory.
But to mark those territories on the world map that have been tinted by a wave of resistance to the system holding the political and economical grip, we can also look back at the events of Arab Spring and the demonstrations and protests against the Putin regime in Russia.
These events are no more something organized by a handful of leftist intellectuals or activists, instead they are a massive full-scale movement, still expanding and shaping the dominant mood of a great part of the society. The number of similarities between these movements, rooted in different parts of the world and focussed on dissimilar claims, is astonishing. By reversing power positions and questioning centre dominance, the slow revolution has made marginality a hot topic, it is a non-hierarchical movement stemmed from a necessity of individuals and developing the traditions of direct democracy. This movement has no national borders, no leaders, no political manifests.
The main demand is to change the current system or create a new alternative to the existing one. What is a possible alternative? Hasn’t the critical tradition arrived at an impasse of sorts, where it criticizes the current situation but cannot offer a new vision of the future, a new utopia?
Slavoj Žižek maintains that the members of the Occupy movement do not fear wanting what they wish, they do not fear wishing the impossible. They wish to occupy their dreams by changing the usual protest movement code that expects clearly expressed and purposeful action. Instead of stating particular demands, the reality happening before our eyes is exposed and interpreted.
What can an artist do in such a seismic situation? Is changing or influencing the situation possible? What strategies can be useful when you are often situated in a rather marginal position?
In one of the segments of articulating a protest, which could perhaps be called its symbolic level, a need of finding the language – its vocalization, verbalization, visualization – emerges. Public space, streets, squares, social networks become battle territories. Image becomes one of the most influential weapons, and its power is multiplied each time it appears on television, computer or telephone screens. History is written with images, they circumvent the ideologically controlled media territories, freely enter virtual space and offer different interpretations and facts. Visual signs comprise a universal language and new social codes that help articulating revolution. Image smuggling the society’s obsession with documenting reality, insolent appropriation, interventions into public space, footnotes, by using guerrilla tactics, become instruments of the slow revolution.
The term ”smuggling”, introduced into culture space by art theorist Irit Rogoff, could be one of these hidden strategies, possessing a powerful potential for “smuggling” knowledge, text, sound and visuals, and significantly conceptualizing a new culture practice, plus offering a fresh impulse to the critical tradition.
Criticism is closely connected to marginality – taking a position not related to the governing tendency. Regardless of whether this position is a purposeful choice or affected by external circumstances, often it is territorial, institutional and ideological fringes that turn into places where the most audacious and unexpected ideas originate.
“Quick Guide for a Revolution”(1), which I just recently reread, encourages avoiding being dull and bore others, give in to routine. Invent your own tactics, games, make the first move before control society has got around to classifying, subduing and seizing the extraordinary ideas and solutions – incorporating them into the system.
“If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution” is what the legendary anarchist andchampion of feminist ideas Emma Goldberg once passionately said, having received a disapproving remark for overzealous dancing at a house party. I can only agree with her and, continuing Joseph Beuys’ idea of art being the only evolutionary revolutionary power that can change the “social organism”, declare that by leaving the confines of galleries and museums we can identify various forms of intervention in social texture and map the spontaneous manifestations of civic engagement, thus occupying everything with the help of creative ideas and invading the ever-changing world to make it better. And remember that it is important to not fear wanting what you wish, not fear wishing the impossible.
_____
(1) http://howtocamp.takethesquare.net/2012/09/05/quick-guide-for-a-revolution-english/