Vanguardia

Description

The avant garde is dead, or so the story goes for many leftists and capitalists alike. But in an era of neoliberal austerity, neocolonial militarism and ecological crisis, this postmodern view seems increasingly outmoded. Rejecting 'end of ideology' post-politics, Vanguardia delves into the changing praxis of socially engaged art and theory in the age of the Capitalocene. Covering the major events of the last decade, from anti-globalisation protests, Occupy Wall Street, the Maple Spring, Strike Debt and the Anthropocene, to the Black Lives Matter and MeToo campaigns, Vanguardia puts forward a radical leftist commitment to the revolutionary consciousness of avant-garde art and politics. Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: a thousand contradictions Alter-globalisation, revolutionary movement and the state mode of production A brief history of Occupy Wall Street Vanguardia Psychoprotest: dérives of the Quebec Maple Spring The unrealised extravagance of the avant garde: Test Dept and the subsumption of labour No strawman for the revolution Beyond socially enraged art The only game in town Notes Index