A veritable observatory of analyses and a platform for experimentation, the 'Troubles, Alliances and Aesthetics' Chair studies relations of proximity, neighbourhoods, affections and intimacies as they emerge from the so-called margins of gender, sexuality, race and class. What formats of life and what forms of existence have the encounters between our bodies, our subjectivities and our communities provoked in the past and are they engendering today, in the fields of theory, activism and artistic practice?
In concrete terms, the 'Troubles, Alliances and Aesthetics' Chair is a space for critical discussion, engaged debate and sensitive production around micro-political and hyper-contemporary issues that engage our senses, our affects, our gestures and our desires. Alliances are forged to affirm together other possibilities. But they are also made to fight against and do not exclude internal debates and struggles. It is in this tension that our research and work will be situated. In an open proximity and in oppositions ready to dialogue, to build and to mutate. A number of questions will be posed with urgency: how can our bodies and our affects, how can our concepts and our commitments be so valuable as powers of collective affirmation, as other ways of becoming, being and doing together? How can they stand up to discrimination and oppression? How can they help transform the way we create and receive art? As always, the words of artists, their practices and productions will be the driving force behind this study.
The Chair is coordinated by Madeleine Planeix-Crocker and Fabrice Bourlez.
The 'Troubles, Alliances and Aesthetics' Chair will take the form of invitations as part of the cultural programme, workshops and a 5th-year diploma seminar open to all students.
