Menu Expand
It's the Political Economy, Stupid

It's the Political Economy, Stupid

Gregory Sholette | Oliver Ressler

(2013)

Additional Information

Book Details

Abstract

It's the Political Economy, Stupid brings together internationally acclaimed artists and thinkers, including Slavoj Zizek, David Graeber, Judith Butler and Brian Holmes, to focus on the current economic crisis in a sustained and critical manner.

In sympathy with the subject matter, the book features powerful original artwork for the cover, and an internal design theme based on the movements of Goldman Sachs stock market values by activist designer Noel Douglas. What emerges is a powerful critique of the current capitalist crisis through an analytical and theoretical response and an aesthetic-cultural rejoinder. By combining artistic responses with the analysis of leading radical theorists, the book expands the boundaries of critique beyond the usual discourse.

It's the Political Economy, Stupid argues that it is time to push back against the dictates of the capitalist logic and, by use of both theoretical and artistic means, launch a rescue of the very notion of the social.
'Confrontational, intellectual, and occasionally amusing group show, which squarely aligns itself with the Occupy movement'
Village Voice (praise for the exhibition on which the book is based)
'In the wake of the capitalist crisis, very few cultural institutions have dared to address the horrors of greed that plague us in such a direct and haunting way'
Alexander Cavaluzzo, Hyperallergic

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Cover Cover
Contents 4
Foreword by Pia Hovi-Assad, Pori Art Museum, Finland 6
1. Unspeaking the Grammar of Finance - Gregory Sholette and Oliver Ressler 8
2. It's the Political Economy, Stupid! - Slavoj Žižek 14
Comments on Art from the Exhibition 'It's the Political Economy, Stupid' 34
3. The Political Economisation of Art - John Roberts 62
4. Derivative Days: Notes on Art, Finance, and the Unproductive Forces - Melanie Gilligan 72
5. Occupational Realism - Julia Bryan-Wilson 84
Comments on Art from the Exhibition 'It's the Political Economy, Stupid' - Angela Dimitrakaki and Kirsten Lloyd 96
Occupy Wall Street's Anarchist Roots - David Graeber 110
7. Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street - Judith Butler 118
Comments on Art from the Exhibition 'It's the Political Economy, Stupid' - Thom Donovan 128
8. Sick Sad Life: On the Artistic Reproduction of Capital - Kerstin Stakemeier 156
9. Art After Capitalism - Brian Holmes 164
Touring Exhibition Dates 178
Notes on Contributors 180