Ethics of the Commons: Art and the Dislocation of the World
Ethics of the Commons: Art and the Dislocation of the World

Summary/Abstract: In 1940 Bertolt Brecht defined the theme of art (das Thema der Kunst) as the “dislocation of the world (die Welt aus den Fugen)”. Our paper tries to test this definition in our contemporary times. In order to do this, we consider the way(s) in which images and narrative techniques contribute to the elaboration of frames of understanding and we will consider this to be their political dimension. We also take into account the relation between art and history and we ask three questions: is art a way of responding to the dislocation of the world? Is it a privileged medium through which this dislocation can be brought into visibility? Is art a way in which to dis-locate the world? We meditate on art as an ever-moving work of what is human and what is common. It brings us to an ethics of the commons, which we consider to be (more than ever) necessary in our contemporary globalized world.

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