Eine Konferenz des eipcp im Rahmen des Projekts Midstream / A conference convened by the Midstream project. Mit / with Mit / with Manuel Borja-Villel (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid), Christoph Brunner (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg), Boris Buden (eipcp permanent fellow), Lucie Kolb (Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, Basel), Solvita Krese (Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art Riga), Brigitta Kuster (Humboldt-Universität Berlin), Isabell Lorey (Universität Kassel), Kelly Mulvaney (University of Chicago), Stefan Nowotny (Goldsmiths, University of London), Gerald Raunig (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste), Stella Rollig (Belvedere Wien), Ruth Sonderegger (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien). Moderation: Monika Mokre (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften), Luisa Ziaja (Belvedere Wien)

The exhibition "YOU’VE GOT 1243 UNREAD MESSAGES. Last Generation Before the Internet. Their Lives", which is part of the co-operation project "Midstream", deals with the recent past where the search for oneself and others took place in an analogue instead of digital environment. The works of art and various everyday artifacts chosen for the exhibit are micro-historical evidence of some 20th century individuals, or whole currents that continued to throw into doubt any borders between art and everyday life. These are stories about the individual memory culture, mutual networking and experimental creation in the pre-digital era.
The exhibition "YOU'VE GOT 1243 MESSAGES" has been developed as a poetic detrition in the cultural layer of the analogue era where artifacts, very different in form and purpose, are found side by side. Artworks and exhibits are selected from a variety of public and private international contemporary art institutions, cabinets of curiosities, local archives and Van Abbemuseum (Netherlands) collection. The narrative lines of the exhibition are developed by a cross-disciplinary group of curators: Kaspars Vanags, Zane Zajančkauska and Diana Franssen (Van Abbemuseum). Their story on the last decades before the Internet is based on different cultural practices: art that was contemporary in the 1970s, private archives of everyday life, analogue era communication devices and outdated social networking habits. This exhibition will look at the recent visual communication history in order to understand how to generate new hybrid “midstream” forms of publishing by learning from the analogue era.

It didn’t take long for the so-called "migrant crisis" to fully manifest its political impact on Europe. Not only are the forces of the status quo – which guaranteed the stability of the old continent for decades – rapidly losing popular support as they are seriously being challenged by growing right-wing movements today, the very survival of the EU is now at stake. And again, the issue of migration appears at the very heart of all this political turmoil – not because it is the cause of a crisis, which the political elites must resolve to save Europe, but because it is used by these same elites to conceal their own inability to cope with the historical crisis of neoliberal globalization which is demolishing the European dream today.
Therefore, what is euphemistically called a “migrant crisis” today is in fact a means of historical forgetting. Moreover, it is, at the same time, itself the result of a forgotten history; for migrants are by no means newcomers to Europe. There is no better reminder of that fact than the old figure of the gastarbeiter – the so-called "guest worker" from the South who moved and worked throughout the spaces of North/Western Europe at the historical peak of industrial modernity.
The texts in this issue attempt to reawaken the memories of gastarbeiters in order to historicize the current experience of migration and its dangerous political appropriations. They aim at revealing a hidden genealogy of domination, exploitation, and manipulation, as well as a struggle for justice and emancipation. Those who cannot historicize the conditions in which they live will never be able to politicize them.

Today's so-called migrant "crisis" has not only seriously shaken the existing order, it has exposed links between current and historical forms of oppression and exclusion. The old figure of the Gastarbeiter exists at the very core of a hidden genealogy of today’s "crisis" – making it necessary to disclose this genealogy across old and new ideological divides and political interests, and to thus reconnect our present with the past in order to not only understand the current "crisis" but to open the prospect of a new, different future.

Während in vielen Ländern Europas rassistische und neue faschistische Kräfte Zuspruch gewinnen, zogen bei den letzten Gemeinderatswahlen in Spanien Plattformen aus sozialen Bewegungen flächendeckend in die Stadtparlamente ein. Aus den mikropolitischen Erfahrungen des letzten Jahrzehnts, aus der Bewegung gegen Zwangsräumungen, aus den Besetzungen, Versammlungen und Arbeitsgruppen um den 15M war die munizipalistische Bewegung entstanden. Das Buch versucht die Praxen und Prozesse, Strategien und Verfahren zu diskutieren, die sich in der vielfachen Erfahrung des Munizipalismus ansammeln, ihr Scheitern und ihre Erfolge, ihre mögliche Übersetzung über die Grenzen Spaniens hinaus.
Jenseits des einfachen Gegensatzes von Bewegung und Institution geht und ging es in den verschiedenen Städten Spaniens keinesfalls nur um die Übernahme der Institution, sondern um die Erprobung einer neuer Institutionalität, um instituierende Praxen und konstituierende Prozesse. Quer zu den nationalen Strukturen der zentralistischen Politik, unter dem Radar der transnationalen ökonomischen Ströme entstand eine ansteckende Wellenbewegung in ganz Spanien, die ein Potenzial zur Ausbreitung über Spanien hinaus in sich trägt: hin zu einem konkreten Gefü ge von rebellischen Städten in Europa, aber auch zu einem Zusammenfluss, der alle gegebenen Skalierungen überfließt, vom kleinsten lokalen Zusammenhang des Dorfs oder Stadtteils bis zur translokalen Formation der neuen Munizipalismen.

Zum hundertsten Jahrestag der Oktoberrevolution veröffentlicht transversal texts die durchgesehene Neuausgabe von Gerald Raunigs Kunst und Revolution. Als differenzierende Affirmation (post-)revolutionärer Avantgarden versucht die Studie unter anderem eine Relektüre des sowjetischen Produktivismus um Eisenstein und Tretjakov. Deren revolutionäre Praxen und ihr Austausch mit Brecht und Benjamin in den 1920er Jahren bilden die Mitte reichen Materials zur Analyse der Verkettung von Kunst und Revolution im „langen 20. Jahrhundert“. Die inzwischen in einige Sprachen übersetzte und ausgiebig kommentierte Studie reicht von Gustave Courbets Engagement in der Pariser Commune und deutsche Aktivismen der 1910er Jahre über die Situationistische Internationale und die Wiener Aktion „Kunst und Revolution“ im Mai 1968 bis hin zur Genealogie der VolxTheaterKarawane von einem anarchischen Theaterkollektiv der 1990er Jahre zu einer queeren Verkettung im antirassistischen noborder-Netzwerk Anfang der 2000er.
Im neuen Vorwort aktualisiert Gerald Raunig seine Theorie der Revolution anhand der verwobenen Interpretation der Pariser Commune und der aktuellen Aneignung der Städte durch die munizipalistische Bewegung in Spanien seit 2015. Soziale Revolution, condividuelle Revolution der Sorge, molekulare Revolution – revolutionäre Maschinen, die den Staatsapparat nicht einfach übernehmen, sondern seine Form erneuern wollen: „Die molekulare Revolution bewegt sich mit diesen revolutionären Maschinen, als soziale Umhüllung, Vielheit der Sorgebeziehungen, Wiederaneignung der Stadt.“

Maurizio Lazzaratos Auseinandersetzung mit Marcel Duchamp liest dessen Feier der Faulheit in der Kunst als radikalen Alternativentwurf zur operaistischen Losung einer „Verweigerung der Arbeit“. Mit Duchamp lassen sich einerseits kritische Perspektiven auf einen erweiterten und transformierten Arbeitsbegriff gewinnen, der in neoliberalen Verhältnissen zusehends an „kreativer“ Arbeit modelliert wurde. Andererseits wirft die Verweigerung Duchamps Schlaglichter auf eine grundlegende Zweideutigkeit innerhalb der kommunistischen Tradition: „Ist das Ziel die Befreiung von der Arbeit oder die Befreiung durch sie?“ Lazzaratos Essay nimmt diese Problemfelder zum Ausgangspunkt für eine Untersuchung der Bedingungen und Möglichkeiten von Handlung, Zeit und Subjektivität im gegenwärtigen Kapitalismus – und damit nicht zuletzt für die Frage: Was heißt es heute, Arbeit zu verweigern?

Immer Ärger mit dem Subjekt bezieht sich auf die Schwierigkeiten und Zwänge, normative Subjektvorstellungen umzusetzen. Und es bezieht sich auf die Eigenwilligkeiten all derer, denen es nie gelingen will, auf diese Weise zum Subjekt zu werden – die Umdeutungen, Verweigerungen und Widerständigkeiten gegen das autonome, männliche, heterosexuelle, weiße und besitzende bürgerliche Idealsubjekt.
Das Buch befasst sich mit der Subjekttheorie von Judith Butler, die die Idee eines autonomen Subjekts, das als Voraussetzung von Handlungsfähigkeit verstanden wird, schon am Beginn der 1990er Jahre radikal dekonstruiert und damit auch vorherrschende Vorstellungen von kollektivem politischem Handeln in Frage stellt.
Wir machen Immer Ärger mit dem Subjekt mit einem neuen Vorwort wieder zugänglich, weil es mit Butlers 2015 erschienener Essaysammlung Anmerkungen zu einer performativen Theorie der Versammlung an zwei Themensträngen wieder aktuell wird, die auch für Isabell Lorey in den vergangenen Jahren an Bedeutung gewonnen haben: die Verknüpfung von Performativität und Prekarität in den neuesten sozialen Bewegungen sowie die kritische Referenz auf den Begriff des „Volkes“.

Diese Frage stellt Ö1 in einer Marginalie im Rahmen der Radioreihe 'Moment - Leben heute' verschiedenen Organisationen. Im Mai 2017 wurde auch ein Kurzportrait des eipcp präsentiert.

This seminar - organized by Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), La Invisible (Málaga) and eipcp - seeks to reflect on the role of culture in those social movements that vindicate uses of urban space outside a city model which looks towards art to strengthen tourist imaginaries, thus conditioning its institutions and reception. Picasso in the Monster Institution. Art, the Culture Industry and the Right to the City strives to create distance from the predominant sense of celebrations and large-scale cultural commemorations which, in understanding art as an attractive resource, place history and artistic experience inside a frame with exclusive ties to tourism and urban leisure. It also calls into question these logics and explores possible alternatives.

Two new transnational projects started in Autumn 2016.

The English version of Isabell Lorey's Die Regierung der Prekären (Vienna 2012) was published by Verso in 2015. In the year 2016 three more language version followed: Dutch, Spanish and Turkish.

Brigitta Kusters Essay zur Aus/Wahl einer singulären Vergangenheit beleuchtet unterschiedliche Aspekte und Problemstellungen der Erforschung und Verarbeitung von Geschichte im Kontext des deutschen Kolonialismus. Er vergegenwärtigt die spezifische Geschichte des Mordes an Bisselé Akaba, der Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts im von den deutschen Kolonisierern so genannten Hinterland des heutigen Kameruns umgebracht wurde. Kuster balanciert die Inkommensurabilität eines kritischen Umgangs mit deutschen kolonialen schriftlichen, bildlichen und kartographischen Quellen auf der einen, mündlicher und lokaler Überlieferung auf der anderen Seite. Sie leistet damit einen metadisziplinären Beitrag zur postkolonialen Debatte um das koloniale Archiv bzw. die bibliothèque coloniale.

Staat und Kapitalismus lassen sich erst verstehen, wenn sie im Verhältnis zu Sexualität gedacht werden. Wir entwickeln Foucaults Konzeption der Gouvernementalität queer-feministisch weiter und zeigen, wie wichtig das aktuelle Sexualitätsdispositiv für neoliberale autoritäre Staatlichkeit ist. Gegenwärtige Subjektivierungsweisen, in denen Disziplinierung als Freiheit und Selbstverantwortung gelebt wird, problematisieren wir mit Foucaults Überlegungen zur Sorge um sich und die anderen. Im Rahmen seiner Auseinandersetzung mit der ‘parrhesia’ – dem mutig kritischen Sprechen unter riskanten Bedingungen – entfaltet Foucault kynische Praktiken des Ent/Übens von Gewohnheiten. Wir zeigen, wie sich Kyniker_innen aus den unhinterfragten und nicht mehr wahrgenommenen Disziplinierungsverhältnissen hinaus bewegen und dabei neue Praxen erfinden. Als Historiker der Gegenwart rechnet Foucault mit der Revolution – nicht als Rückkehr, sondern als Wiederkehr. Wir zeigen wie sich seine Kritik an der Gegenwart als revolutionäre Praxen in den Besetzungs- und Demokratiebewegungen seit 2011 aktualisiert.

Numerous knowledge-based struggles emerged between 2008–2011 which questioned the changes taking place in universities, on the one hand, and the potentiality of the university as a space for translocally contesting those global transformations, on the other. Through the expansion of those struggles, their contention shifted to how self-education and struggle beyond the university could intervene or create counter-perspectives for change. This book presents the demands, practices, and perspectives developed within those struggles against the backdrop of commodifying transformations in the field of knowledge production – (primarily higher) education, research, and lifelong learning. These examples ultimately debunk major global knowledge-based policy perspectives, primarily those driven by the EU, and their objectives of crisis resolution and sustainable development. As an alternative, this book follows and further develops grassroots practices and perspectives of “living learning” from knowledge-based struggles, presenting socially just and equitable challenges to the transformations in the field of knowledge.

Ein Gespräch über transversal texts mit Niki Kubaczek und Stefan Nowotny im Rahmen der Sendung 'Radio Dispositiv'.

Präsentation und Diskussion von transversal texts im Kepler Salon (Linz), 4.4.2016. Videodokumentation von dorftv online.

Semiotext(e) / MIT Press previously announced the publication of Gerald Raunig’s new book DIVIDUUM. Machinic Capitalism and Molecular Revolution, Part 1: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/dividuum.

The Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University in Budapest welcomes paper proposals for its annual graduate conference, taking place June 3-4, 2016.

Zwischen Black Radical Tradition und ökonomischer Theorie, zwischen Poesie und Philosophie, zwischen Ethiko-Ästhetik und politischer Theorie - die Undercommons entfalten ihre soziopoetische Kraft in einem weiten Feld: Unter der neoliberalen Verwaltung der Universität, vor der ökonomischen Police neuester Logistik, um die schuldengetriebenen Governance herum suchen und finden Stefano Harney und Fred Moten den Reichtum sozialen Lebens gerade in den scheinbar unmöglichsten Lagen: als „Umgebung“, „flüchtige Planung“ oder „schwarzes Studium“. Der Sound, der Rhythmus, die Grooves und die Hook-Lines von Undercommons treiben den antikolonialen Aufstand an, fort und weiter, die Marronage, die queeren Schulden, die Fluchtlinien, das Schwarz-Sein, die Haptikalität und die Logistikalität, die Liebe.

transversal texts legt den Klassiker der Kreativitätskritik mit neuem Vorwort neu auf.

Kurse und Professuren für Creative Industries, Creative Cities und Cultural Entrepreneurs, Programme für Creative Europe, Inkubatoren für die Kunst – die Industrialisierung der Kultur schreitet in ihre nächste Phase. In den kommenden Jahren wird es um die Globalisierung der national gerahmten Kreativindustrien, um Versuche der ökonomischen Domestizierung der letzten künstlerischen Freiräume und um geeignete Widerstandsformen in diesem Setting gehen.

Interview mit Andrea Hummer zu transversal texts. Von Elisabeth Lacher, erschienen in: Die Referentin. Kunst und Kulturelle Nahversorgung, Nr. 2.

Rezension zu Gerald Raunigs DIVIDUUM. Maschinischer Kapitalismus und molekulare Revolution (Band 1). (transversal texts 2015), erschienen auf: diebresche.org.

Im November 2012 zogen Aktivist_innen vom größten Asylwerber_innenlager Österreichs nach Wien, um gegen die Lebensbedingungen von Asylwerber_innen zu protestieren. Sie errichteten ein Camp in Wien, besetzten eine Kirche, manche von ihnen traten in Hungerstreik. Über zahlreiche Stationen hinweg war die Bewegung unter dem Namen Refugee Protest Camp Vienna aktiv.
Das Refugee Protest Camp Vienna ist ein Versuch der Übersetzung. Der Übersetzung des Begehrens der Refugees in hegemoniale Diskurse – Menschenrechte, Integrationswille, Leistungsbereitschaft. Der Übersetzung von Lebensgeschichten in Gesetzesparagraphen. Aber auch der Übersetzung innerhalb der Bewegung – zwischen Menschen mit höchst prekärem Status und Menschen mit gesichertem Aufenthalt. Zwischen Menschen zahlreicher Nationalitäten, Asylsuchenden, Transmigranten, Sans Papiers, Männern und Frauen. Wie lässt sich Solidarität übersetzen, wie schafft man Solidarität zwischen Ungleichen? Wo scheitert diese Übersetzung? Und was entsteht aus diesem Scheitern?

Der Kampf um Anerkennung, das Wissen um Unterwerfung, die Umarbeitung der Anrufungen, die Fragen nach widerständiger Handlungsfähigkeit, das Annehmen einer strategischen Identität als Ausgangsbasis der politischen Artikulation und das Abtasten der Grenzen eines (selbst)proklamierten strategischen Essenzialismus, das Ringen um Protagonismus und seine möglichen Definitionen und Austragungen, das Zelebrieren einer anthropophagischen Haltung und das Hinterfragen dieses Konzeptes, der Horizont der gegenhegemonialen Wissensproduktion und der Kulturarbeit abseits multikulturalistischer Konzepte und Praxen, das Sich-Widersprechen, das transformative Aneignen der hegemonialen Sprache, das Betrachten von Sprache als realitätskonstituierend, das Befragen des Lehrens der hegemonialen Sprache als Zurichtung. Die Bemühung um ein Sprechen und ein Handeln im Widerstand und im Dissens zur herrschenden Selbstverständlichkeit der Diskriminierungen. Ein Schreiben im Kollektiv verortet, eingebettet, eingerahmt. Fragen, Nachdenken und eroberte Perspektiven aus dem Denken und Handeln in einer Selbstorganisation.

Gefängnisse erfüllen zentrale politische und ökonomische Funktionen. Sie sind industrielle Komplexe, die hohe Profite generieren und zugleich Internierungslager für diejenigen, die in dieser Gesellschaft unerwünscht sind. Darunter fallen zahlreiche Personengruppen, die nicht willens oder in der Lage sind, sich den Anforderungen des Spätkapitalismus im globalen Norden zu stellen.
MigrantInnen stellen eine der wichtigsten und zahlenmäßig größten dieser Personengruppen dar. Für sie ist das „kleine Gefängnis“ Teil und verdichteter Ausdruck des großen Gefängnisses der Gesellschaft, in der sie leben und an deren Teilhabe sie systematisch gehindert werden. Das große wie das kleine Gefängnis individualisieren und moralisieren gesellschaftliche Probleme und beantworten sie mit radikalem Ausschluss.

Ein Gespenst geht um in Europa, ein konstituierender Wind weht aus dem Süden. Mit dem Wahlsieg der griechischen Linkspartei Syriza, dem kommunalen Erfolg von bewegungsnahen Bündnissen in Barcelona und Madrid sowie dem Aufstieg von Podemos in Spanien verdichtet sich eine lang schon erwartete Entwicklung neuer linker Parteien. Dieser konstituierende Prozess geht allerdings weit über klassische Parteigründungen hinaus, er ist aus den sozialen Bewegungen der Krisenjahre entstanden und kristallisiert sich in einer Vielzahl von mikropolitischen Praxen bis zur Regierungsbildung.

Im Jahr 1983 flieht Antonio Negri nach Aufhebung seiner parlamentarischen Immunität vor der Verfolgung durch den italienischen Staat nach Paris. Es beginnt damit ein 14-jähriges Exil, in dem der marxistische Philosoph sich stärker als zuvor mit der poststrukturalen französischen Theorie von Deleuze, Foucault und anderen auseinandersetzt. Mit Félix Guattari beginnt er ein Experiment des gemeinsamen Schreibens, das Buch Les nouveaux espaces de liberté.

Mit "Dividuum" beschreibt der Philosoph und Kunsttheoretiker Gerald Raunig nicht nur eine wesentliche Funktionsweise des gegenwärtigen Kapitalismus, sondern auch potenzielle Fluchtlinien aus diesem.

Mit Monika Mokre war am Donnerstag, 12. März, um 16.30 Uhr eine vielseitige Wissenschafterin und Aktivistin bei "Wassermair sucht den Notausgang" zu Gast. Bei der Diskussion ging es u.a. um die Krise der Publikationsindustrie, die Auslöschung der Erfindungskraft sowie um neue Strategien in der Produktion und Distribution von Wissen.

Years of remodelling the welfare state and the growing power of neoliberal government apparatuses have established a society of the precarious. In this new reality, productivity is no longer just a matter of labour, but affects the formation of the self, blurring the division between personal and professional lives. Encouraged to believe ourselves flexible and autonomous, we experience a creeping isolation that has both social and political impacts, and serves the purposes of capital accumulation and social control.

In State of Insecurity, Isabell Lorey develops a multi-dimensional political theory of precarisation. Against this background she explores the possibilities for organization and resistance under the contemporary status quo, and anticipates the emergence of a new and disobedient self-government of the precarious.

Im Begriff der Posse begegnen einander Theater, Performance und Politik, nicht zuletzt als Spielräume emanzipatorischer Kämpfe gegen Körper- und Grenzregime. Poststrukturalistische, postdramatische und feministische Diskurse bilden die Basis für Gin Müllers Tour de Force durch eine vielfältige Welt von politischen Aktionsformen. Possen des Performativen verweisen dabei sowohl auf minoritäres (Theater-)Vermögen zur Artikulation von Widerstand, genauso wie auf subversive performative Strategien zur "Verqueerung" des normierenden Geschlechtertheaters. Die im Buch verhandelten Praxen reichen von globalisierungskritischen Auseinandersetzungen (Zapatistas, Tute Bianche, G8 Genua, Heiligendamm) über antirassistische Kämpfe (Sans Papiers, kein mensch ist illegal, kanak attak) zu feministischen und queeren Politiken (Riot Grrrls, Pink-Block, Transgender-Aktivismus).

Die jahrhundertelange Konjunktur des Individuums gerät ins Wanken. Es beginnt das Zeitalter des Dividuellen. Die schlechte Nachricht von Gerald Raunigs Philosophie der Dividualität ist, dass sich das Dividuelle im maschinischen Kapitalismus vor allem als Verschärfung von Ausbeutung und Indienstnahme zeigt: In Algorithmen, Derivaten, Big Data und Social Media wirkt Dividualität als ausufernde Erweiterung von herrschaftlicher Teilung und Selbstzerteilung. Die gute Nachricht: Genau auf dem Terrain des Dividuellen wird auch eine neue Qualität von Widerstand möglich, als kritische Mannigfaltigkeit, molekulare Revolution und Con-division.

In den französischen Banlieues verdichten sich heute unterschiedlichste Erfahrungen der Migration, häufig vor dem Hintergrund geschichtlicher Kolonialverhältnisse, ihrer Hinterlassenschaften und Fortschreibungen. Allzu oft aber verfährt sich der Blick auf die Artikulationen dieser Erfahrungen – die Sprachen der Banlieues – in unterschiedlichen Phantasmen des Mangels oder aber eines sich selbst undurchsichtig bleibenden Überschusses: Wo man einerseits die erhabene Sprache der Nation verkümmern sieht, wird andererseits auf eine gleichsam babylonische Sprachenvielfalt verwiesen, die aber eben auch bloße Sprachverwirrung sein könnte; und wo die einen, angesichts brennender Autos beispielsweise, nur stumme Gewalt erblicken, erklingt den anderen der Hahnenschrei künftiger Revolutionen. Was aber, wenn das Scheitern oder Ausbleiben von Übersetzung und Artikulation, das all diese Figuren in der einen oder anderen Weise unterstellen, zuallererst die soziale und politische Sprache jener kennzeichnete, die die Banlieues in ihre eigenen Projektionen zu bannen versuchen (und damit erneut zu „Orten des Banns“ machen)?

„Precarias a la deriva“ steht für einen heterogenen Zusammenhang von Frauen, die sich 2002 während des Generalstreiks in Spanien zusammengefunden haben, um die Möglichkeit des Handelns bzw. des Streiks in Zeiten der Prekarität zu erproben. Im Vordergrund ihres Interesses steht dabei nicht die Produktion eines distanten Wissens über „Betroffene“, sondern vielmehr die Hervorbringung einer auf Sorgebeziehungen basierenden Sozialität. Die in der Neuauflage des Bands versammelten Texte sind kollektiv verfasst und begeben sich auf die Reflexionsebene einer Praxis, die auf eine Unterbrechung der sozialen Fragmentierung und Isolation abzielt und zu politischem Handeln ermächtigt.

Zwei neue Projekte versuchen, die sich verschärfende Krise der Publikationsindustrie zu nutzen, um zukünftige Formen der Veröffentlichung zu erproben.

We are happy to announce the launch of the multilingual platform transversal texts.

transversal texts is an abstract machine and text machine at once, territory and stream of publication, production site and platform – the middle of a becoming that never wants to become a publishing company.

transversal texts consists of an experimental site for publishing books and e-books in multiple languages, the multilingual web journal transversal, and a blog on current news from the middle of translation, social movements, art practices and political theory.

http://transversal.at
http://transversal.at/transversal/0614/eipcp/en

From the foreword to Issue 9...
The mundaneness of our struggle to live is the existential background of this issue. Our process of editing this book occurred while almost by mistake we stripped the aesthetics from our politics and had the most boring of lives. Go to work. Come home. Pick up the kids. Make diner. Our articles don’t politicize biking to the job or going out at night. This issue has few recipes to share. Just one article looks at the economy of the artist- we figure that for this issue the daily grind, precarity, is a settled matter. Rather, the praxis of this issue comes to face the possibility for a positionality without a fancy jacket, outside of our living-as-form. This issue's editorial process assumed positionality and observed the effects of techniques. This issue is something much more then norm-core, we observed how a meaningful and effective creativity and creative politic exists quite external to our life-style.

Imaginary Archive - a collection of fictional and real documents from a past whose future never arrived - travels to Ukraine with Greg Sholette & Olga Kopenkina

We, the undersigned of this petition, find it inacceptable that labour, social and human rights are being compromised!
1) We urge the Bundestheater-Holding to hire its employees directly, to safeguard the audience-service personnel's jobs in the course of restructuring, and particularly to stop terminating employees on the grounds of factual criticism of their working conditions.
2) We urge the Austrian Federal Government to oblige subsidy recipients by providing strict guidelines to conclude fair employment contracts within the law and with adequate payment. No resources assigned for the promotion of arts and culture shall go to companies such as G4S!
3) We urge the Federal Government, the federal provinces, and the municipalities to not enter into contracts with companies known to violate labour, social or human rights. The contract with G4S on the prison for detention pending deportation in Vordernberg, which was concluded under dubious terms of tender, must be immediately terminated!

Language, information and the virtual space were distinctive features of the previous generation. Craft, matter and the fusion of the digital and the material are defining generation M, the first generation of the 21st century.

Our first issue of the ArtLeaks Gazette was aimed at bringing critical awareness of the challenges and obstacles of the contemporary art system. While we considered this a necessary initial step in enacting meaningful transformations of this system, we now feel the need to move beyond exposure and breaking the silence into ways of engagement, or what does it mean to be agents of change in the art world today?

A spectre is haunting Latin America, moving among social movements and programmatic constitutions. It is the spectre of sumak kawsay, the principle of reciprocity amongst living things, with and within the nature and deep-rooted in indigenous cultures. Called buen vivir in Ecuador, the use of this phrase refers to a political conception of a social living in relation, not only to nature, but also to a broader dimension of living together, in common, the fulfilment of life ...

This call addresses collectives and individuals aiming to critically reinvent Europas as a political space of progressive freedom and emancipation. In this sense, we welcome contributions in order to organise a meeting for the collective discussion around themes such as debt, democracy, commons, culture, mobility and technopolitics.

Open!, the online continuation of Open. Cahier on Art & the Public Domain, is now available at http://www.onlineopen.org/.

Pour tous ceux qui s’intéressent au renouveau de la pensée critique hors l’Occident, l’événement intellectuel majeur de la rentrée est sans conteste la sortie, aux Éditions La Découverte à Paris, de Critique de la raison nègre du Camerounais Achille Mbembe. Annoncé depuis plusieurs années et venant à la suite du succès qu’aura été Sortir de la grande nuit, ce nouvel essai représente le livre le plus complexe et le plus osé d’un auteur qui s’est affirmé comme le penseur africain le plus accompli de sa génération. […] Nous avons rencontré l’auteur à Johannesburg, quelques jours seulement avant son départ à Harvard où il enseigne cette année.

Für all jene, die sich für eine Erneuerung des kritischen Denkens außerhalb des Okzidents interessieren, ist das wichtigste Ereignis dieses Herbst zweifellos Critique de la raison nègre des Kameruners Achille Mbembe, das bei Editions La Decouverte in Paris erschienen ist. Das schon seit Jahren angekündigte Buch folgt auf den Essay Sortir de la grande nuit und stellt das bislang komplexeste und gewagteste Buch eines Autors dar, der als einer der wichtigsten afrikanischen Denker seiner Generation gilt. […] Wir haben Achille Mbembe in Johannesburg wenige Tage vor seiner Abreise nach Harvard getroffen, wo er dieses Jahr unterrichten wird.

Almost every day newspapers report the tragedy that repeatedly takes place in the middle of the blue border: the Mediterranean Sea.
While we are writing, we hear of hundreds of corpses collected form the sea, boys and girls, children and women reversed into the water after the fire burst on board of a boat that was heading to Europe.
These people are asylum seekers, women and men fleeing wars and persecutions, swallowed by the sea in these last decades, just like all the others: about 20.000 persons.

TEACHING THE CRISIS is an intensive program fostering international scholarly exchange and discussion around the ongoing political, economic, social and ecological crisis – in Europe and beyond. It convenes students and faculty from eleven different countries and diverse disciplinary backgrounds (such as Anthropology, Political Science, Philosophy, Gender Studies, Management, Literature, Sociology and International Relations) over the course of thirteen days.

The resistance movement around Taksim Square invents a new wave of video-activism - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Pf5vYme9Q

This new publication results from the two years transnational project "Romanistan. Crossing Spaces in Europe", which was conducted by IG Kultur Österreich in cooperation with Roma organisations from Vienna, Berlin and Barcelona (Roma Kultur Zentrum Wien, Amaro Drom, FAGiC). The German version is now available for download, printed copies can be ordered free of charge. In a few weeks, the book will also be available in English, Spanish and Romani.

Toni Negri’s postface of Gerald Raunig’s new book „Factories of Knowlegde, Industries of Creativity“, just published in Semiotext(e)’s Intervention Series.

Partido _X , the Party of the Future, has been launched, a party with no faces and based in Internet.

We declare our solidarity with the refugees in the Vienna Votivpark and Votivkirche.
We fully agree with the rightful demands of the refugees.
We condemn the police violence in the morning on 28 December 2012.
We demand of the Catholic church to support the refugees staying in the Votivkirche.
We demand of the politicians, church officials, and media to stop their rhetoric of division among refugees and activists.
We support the occupation of churches for reasons of attacking reactionary and neoliberal migration politics.

European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies (eipcp)

For further information: https://refugeecampvienna.noblogs.org/

The refugee protest camp vienna has expanded to Votivkirche, to continue the struggle! They demand their right to stay!

Start: 12:00 o'clock at Refugee Protest Camp Sigmund Freud Park (next
to metro station Schottentor and University)

On 24th November, a large group of refugees marched for 8 hours from Traiskirchen to Vienna to make their political demands heard. They’ve set up a protest camp at Sigmund Freud Park on the same Saturday, so as to raise their voices at the heart of the Austrian capital and finally speak for themselves.

SIGN THE PETITION

24th of November: 7 a.m. Protest march from the refugee camp in Traiskirchen to Vienna / Following: permanent manifestation in Vienna at Votivpark / For this protest, many resources are still needed. // + This is a call to all groups and individuals who deal with anti-discriminatory practices, to join the plenary meeting of the refugeesprotestcamp today, 28th of November to participate in the planning/mobilizing/supporting of planned demonstration this coming Saturday 1st of December. The plenary meeting will be held in the big tent at 6pm.

Gerald Raunig's book "Fabbriche del sapere, industrie della creatività" (Translation and preface by Roberto Nigro, postface by Antonio Negri) will be presented and discussed in Venezia (15 Nov.), Bologna (16 Nov.) and Milano (30 Nov.).

Following a large protest for the rights of refugees at the weekend, the
building of the Nigerian embassy in Berlin was occupied this morning by
refugee activists.

In August of 2012 the Québec Liberal Party under Jean Charest announced a provincial election that would take place just after Labour Day and before the resumption of Fall classes. The premier had presented the election as a sort of referendum in which the province was asked to vote on the student strike, which at its peak had mobilized nearly 300,000 students and which since the passing of the unconstitutional anti-strike and anti-demonstration Law 78 had brought into the struggle broad swathes of civil society. Student groups insisted that even if Charest lost the election, the struggle for a social strike and for free university access would continue.

The “Jobcenter” is the largest provider of income in the Neukoelln district of Berlin. It is here where people from the district come together – the young and the old, those with a Ph.D. and those without a school leaving certificate, those who have been around forever and the newest district residents. For this reason, the Jobcenter as an institution has not only a great influence on the district – it is also a (potential) place for intervention against disfranchisement and exploitation.

In the wake of the 100th day of the general student strike in Québec and in the aftermath of passing the so-called Special Law 78, the global rupture these events evoked cannot be overlooked. In solidarity with Québec, its students, activists and the Quebecoise people reminding us of the rights for free education, the right for peaceful assembly and political expression, this interview has been prompted spontaneously during a workshop at Zurich University of the Arts.

Text publié le 23 Mai 2012 dans le journal Médiapart (http://blogs.mediapart.fr).

Un artículo con occasión del aniversario la "Spanish Revolution" publicado en www.diagonalperiodico.net, núm. 175, mayo de 2012.

Ein Artikel anlässlich des Jahrestages der "Spanischen Revolution", veröffentlicht in www. diagonalperiodico.net.

Students in Quebec are marking their 100th day of an unlimited general strike on Tuesday, May 22nd, the culmination of the most stunning mass protest movements of recent months and North America’s largest student movement in years. In fact, the mobilizations in Quebec might just be Canada’s Arab Spring.

Popular protests such as Blockupy offer an alternative to capitalism for those facing a life hunting through garbage cans.

In a press release on afternoon May 4th the Frankfurt Municipal Department for Public Order announced that it bans all actions planned by the alliance “blockupy Frankfurt” for the Days of Protest May 16th to May 19th. Today the legal applicants of the more than 15 different actions only received information on one single case, and even that happened seriously late.

The trial against four political activists will take place in the Josefstadt District Court on the 13th March 2012 at 9:00 am. Under the pretext of having set a garbage can on fire in front of the AMS (unemployment office) in Rederergasse, a political trial will be conducted that is directed against autonomous political practices and policies. Under paragraph 278b, month-long surveillance operations have been carried out, which – beginning with the education protests in 2009 – soon the observations included the activities of the autonomous/anarchist and anti-racist scene.

At a time when one in two young Greeks is unemployed, when 25,000 homeless people wonder the streets of Athens, when 30% of the population has fallen below the poverty line, when thousands of families are forced to give up their children to save them from dying of hunger and cold, when refugees and the newly impoverished fight over bins in public dumps, the “rescuers” of Greece, under the pretext that Greeks “aren’t doing enough”, are imposing a new aid package that doubles the administered lethal dose. This is a package that abolishes the right to work and reduces the poor to extreme poverty, while making the middle class disappear.

Avusturya macht Sprache zum Lieblingsproblem. Einfache Lösung: Deutschpflicht für alle.

Hayır, Jo, Lo, Ne, Njet, No, Non, Nu! Nicht mit uns!

Mit Ausschluss Basta! haben wir 2011 dem austriakischen Integrations-Theater eine Absage erteilt. Dieses Jahr reden wir übers Reden: Unsere gemeinsame Sprache ist nicht Deutsch! Wir rufen zum Streik gegen den Deutschzwang auf. Sprechen wir gemeinsam die Sprache der gleichen Rechte – am 1. März beim transnationalen, translationalen Migrant_innenstreik.

Brave New Avant Garde is a collection of essays that ask the question: what is an adequate model of contemporary avant garde practice and what are its theoretical premises? Brave New Avant Garde stands in opposition to the view that radical practice has no other future than its reduction to the workings of the free market in the form of the simple process of cultural production or to variations on the cultural politics of representation. Today's avant garde, formed in the wake of the end of the Soviet Union and the rise of the anti-globalization movement, represents a counter-power that rejects the inevitability of capitalist integration. The way out for artists in today's world of creative industries is defined in these pages as a psychoanalytically informed sinthomeopathic practice.

This book, originally published in Spanish in 2002, is now available in English. Translated by Nate Holdren & Sebastián Touza, and with introductions by Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri.

It is winter and the squares have been cleared. Across the United States, the occupation movement has been erased from public space memory with the routine use of pepper spray, overwhelming displays of militarized force, Mayoral claims of wasted tax payer dollars and unsanitary conditions. While the movement itself continues in sporadic protests, guerrilla actions and moments of civil disobedience, its nodal epicenter of occupations have, at least for the moment, been eviscerated. As we head into the upcoming election year of 2012, the occupation movement in the United States has an opportunity to plan its next move.

The global economic and ecological crises have exposed the thought and institutions that have enriched a few by making the majority starve and by bringing nature to the brink of destruction. Lokavidya Jan Andolan is a knowledge movement of this majority, that is of those people, who have been dubbed as the ignorant masses by the science establishments, the universities and the modern state. The conference is an attempt to bring together the organizers of the movements of peasants and artisans, indigenous peoples and small trades-people, women and youth on a knowledge platform, which is a platform of their knowledge, lokavidya.

"Nobody Can Predict the Moment of Revolution", "We the People Have Found our Voice" and "The Time For Action Is Now (Occupy CUNY)", three videos by Iva Radivojevic & Martyna Starosta are available online.

On October 15th people from all over the world will take to the streets and squares.

Students, precarious workers, unemployed, and activists of Europe and North Africa met in Tunisia for the transnational meeting “Réseau de luttes” from September 29th to October 2nd to share knowledge and collective experiences to create a common process of struggles.

The new issue of the Edu-Factory Journal is now available for free download.

Financial capitalism is crumbling with impressive velocity, and the social civilization built by labour and science during the modern centuries, is in danger. Only cognitive work, independent from financial capitalism will be able to save it. Building autonomy of knwoledge from financial dictatorship is our political, scientific and poetical task.

An analysis of the recent events in the UK, as seen from Brazil.

Last week in a memorandum titled "More than Quality," the State Secretary for Culture, acting on behalf of the Dutch government (a minority government of liberals and Christian Democrats, whose hold on power relies on the support of Geert Wilders's anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV)) announced his new "vision" for the field of culture, which represents nothing less than a violent and sweeping political manoeuvre aimed at the very notion of culture and art, its role in society, and its place within the democratic sphere.

This guide is not a road map or instruction manual. It’s a match struck in the dark, a homemade multi-tool to help you carve out your own path through the ruins of the present, warmed by the stories and strategies of those who took Bertolt Brecht’s words to heart: “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”

It was written in a whirlwind of three days in December 2010, between the first and second days of action by UK students against the government cuts, and intended to reflect on the possibility of new creative forms of action in the current movements.

On Sunday May 25th, there was a European-wide call to occupy main squares at 6pm. In Vienna, there has been a Camp at Karlsplatz since Sunday, May 29th. There were about 150 people at the solidarity rally at Stephansplatz at noon on Sunday. This is the fourth day of occupation. A blog (http://acampaviena.blogsport.eu/) was set up.

New publication with contributions by Brigitta Kuster, Maurizio Lazzarato, Esther Leslie, Isabell Lorey, Angela McRobbie, Raimund Minichbauer, Monika Mokre, Stefan Nowotny, Marion von Osten, Gerald Raunig, Gene Ray, Suely Rolnik, Vassilis Tsianos, Paolo Virno and Ulf Wuggenig

With just a few hours to go before the municipal and regional elections in Madrid, in the midst of a pathetic electoral campaign, the so-called Movimiento 15-M has restored the meaning of the word “politics”.

On 15th May 2011, around 150,000 people took to the streets in 60 Spanish towns and cities to demand “Real Democracy Now”, marching under the slogan “We are not commodities in the hands of bankers and politicians”. The protest was organised through web-based social networks without the involvement of any major unions or political parties. At the end of the march some people decided to stay the night at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid. They were forcefully evacuated by the police in the early hours of the morning. This, in turn, generated a mass call for everyone to occupy his or her local squares that thousands all over Spain took up. As we write, 65 public squares are being occupied, with support protests taking place in Spanish Embassies from Buenos Aires to Vienna and, indeed, London. You probably have not have read about it in the British press, but it is certainly happening. Try #spanishrevolution, #yeswecamp, #nonosvamos or #acampadasol on Twitter and see for yourself. What follows is a text by Emmanuel Rodríguez and Tomás Herreros from the Spanish collective Universidad Nómada.

With a series of important events over the last 5 days, the city of Paris has been witness to the material transnationalisation of the radical democratic movements that began this spring in Maghreb and the Middle East.

Article du sociologue politique Jean-François Bayart sur la question du regime migratoire à propos des événements en Libye.

Ein Text des politischen Soziologen Jean-François Bayart zur Frage europäischer Migrationspolitiken im Hinblick auf die Ereignisse in Libyen.

Article de la philosophe Isabelle Stengers paru dans le journal Le Monde, le 26. 03. 2011 faisant partie du débat "Vivre et penser le temps de catastrophes".

Ein Text der Philosophin Isabelle Stengers, veröffentlicht in der Ausgabe der Zeitung Le Monde vom 26.03.2011 im Rahmen der Debatte "Die Zeiten der Katastrophe denken und leben".

Appeal to put the catastrophe under citizens control supported by numerous french magazines, such as Vacarme, Multitudes et Chimères.

Do you have to work? Do you want to work? Are you getting paid for your work? Do you have permission to work? Or permission to live here? What are you living from? Do you have spare time? What do you do should you become sick? What are you going to do when you are aged? What do you wish for? How are you opposing your precarity? How are you organizing?

Following an anti-Roma march by the far-right Jobbik party in the village of Gyöngyöspata on 6 March, three vigilante groups have been "patrolling" the area harassing and intimidating Roma residents. Local Roma have allegedly been racially abused and there is fear for their safety. The vigilante groups have announced that their next target will be Roma in the town of Hajdúhadháza. Police have reportedly taken no action.

Figurant ci-dessous le communiqué du réseau Migreurop, paru dans leur site web, le 22 février 2011.

Im Folgenden ein Kommuniqué des Netzwerks Migreurop, das am 22. Februar auf ihrer Website veröffentlicht wurde.

A recently published article in The Guardian, on 24 February 2011, by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri.

Figurant ci-dessous l'article du philosophe Alain Badiou, paru dans le journal Le Monde, le 18 février 2011.

Ein kürzlich in Le Monde veröffentlichter Text des Philosophen Alain Badiou zu den Ereignissen in Tunesien und Ägypten.

Am 1. März organisieren sich weltweit Migrant_innen gegen soziale Ausschlüsse, Diskriminierung und Rassismus. Angefangen hat es im Jahr 2006 mit einem Streik der Migrant_innen in den USA. Seitdem weiten sich die transnationalen Proteste aus. Auch heuer werden in den reichsten Ländern der Welt viele Arbeitnehmer_innen am 1. März streiken oder andere Formen des Protests praktizieren.

Unique in Europe, the courses offered by the Theory major establish an interplay between advanced theory and the free space of the art school. Surpassing the boundaries of academic convention, the systematic course structure provides students with a substantiated overview and opportunities to try out new forms of text and theory production, of aesthetic and political intervention.

On Horizons: Art and Political Imagination took place 4-6 November 2010 in Istanbul. It was the second in the series of FORMER WEST Research Congresses. The congress revolved around the theoretical notion of the "horizon" and its place within artistic production and political imagination today.

For the exhibition 'Culture(s) of Copy' at Edith-Ruß-Haus for Media Art Cornelia Sollfrank realized a new work, which is the last part of her project 'This is not by me'.

In its draft budget the Austrian government plans to severely reduce structural funds for independent research institutes in 2011, and in a next step to reduce this budgetary item to zero in 2012. A petition against these plans can be found at http://wissenschaft.research.at/ .

And yet another petition, this time in French and from Paris/France, where the Coordination des intermittents et précaires (organization established to coordinate intermittent workers and represent their claims for indemnification due to the precarity of their employment) is being threatened with expulsion ....

A Petition Against Racism in Austria ...

In his new book Achille Mbembe explores the process of african decolonisation that took place in the course of the second half of the 20th century. Was this decolonisation finally nothing else than a clamerous accident, a crack on the surface, the sign of a future that was ought to be mistaken? Achille Mbembe shows in this critical essay that the merit of this event – beyond everything that predominates today – is the opening up of a multitude of possible historical tracks. In addition to the world of ruins and destruction new societies are arising ...

The Occupation Cookbook, which is a "manual" that describes the organization of the 35-day student occupation of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, is now online.

‘The old institutions are crumbling ...’ - so began the introduction to the zero issue of Edufactory Journal on the double crisis of the university and the global economy. Paradoxically, one of the conditions of this double crisis is the global expansion of the university. The old institutions are crumbling but they are simultaneously trying to reinvent themselves, to transplant themselves, to network themselves. This issue of the Edufactory Journal will investigate two faces of this situation.

Volume two of The Johannesburg Salon, edited by Lara Allen and Achille Mbembe has recently been published on the Website of The Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism.

This new eipcp-book (in German) presents revised version of the contributions to the transform-conference 'The Art of Critque'. With texts by Alex Demirovic, Antke Engel, Marina Garcés, Hakan Gürses, Jens Kastner, Maurizio Lazzarato, Isabell Lorey, Chantal Mouffe, Stefan Nowotny, Patricia Purtschert, Gerald Raunig, Karl Reitter and Ulf Wuggenig.

A number of students and staff (among whom Peter Hallward and Peter
Osborne) have just been suspended by Middlesex University for their participation in the protests against the university's disastrous decision to shut their philosophy department.

Nachdem die Spieler des FC Sans Papiers beim Training von einem Massenaufgebot an Polizist_innen überfallen wurde und einzelne Spieler sowie deren Trainer in (Schub)Haft genommen wurden, schlugen antirassistische Aktivist_innen Alarm.

Late on Monday 26 April, the Dean of the School of Arts & Education, Ed Esche, informed staff in Philosophy that the University executive had ‘accepted his recommendation’ to close all Philosophy programmes: undergraduate, postgraduate and MPhil/PhD. | Please sign the online petition!

Gerald Raunig's recent book is now available in English. Translated by Aileen Derieg. Published by Semiotext(e) - The MIT Press.

In solidarity with the students facing sanctions for recent political activities at UC Berkeley in defense of public education in California.

European civil society organizes an unprecedented protest action at the Summit of the EU Ministers of Culture.

FRIDAY, THE NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE REGIONAL COUNCIL PLANNED TO PUBLICLY ANNOUNCE HIS DECISION TO "PUT AN END TO THE MCUR PROJECT". HELP US TO SAVE THE MCUR THREATENED OF DESTRUCTION FOR IDEOLOGICAL REASONS! - FRANCOISE VERGES AND THE MCUR TEAM

Issue #14 (March 2010) of the e-flux journal, guest-edited by Irit Rogoff, is now online.

The zero issue of this new webjournal, entitled "The Double Crisis of the University and the Global Economy" is now online.

The new journal of Free/Slow University of Warsaw - Vol. 1 now available online.

This text petitions for dismissal of the indictment against six young activists and/or for their release. These six young civil activists and union members from Belgrade have been in custody since September, 2009 under the charge of committing ‘an act of international terrorism’ for which, under the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia, a prison term of between three and fifteen years is foreseen.  The trial will commence on 17th February 2010.

On http://emancipating-education-for-all.org you can find the result of an attempt to list most of the protests related to "neoliberal reforms" within public education systems around the world.

On March 11 and 12 2010 the education ministers of 46 European countries will celebrate the 10-years anniversary of the Bologna-process in Vienna and Budapest.
Considering the current situation and the ongoing protests in many European Universities this celebration is a mockery for all of us.

Until recently, anyone who suggested nationalising the banks would have been derided as a ‘quack’ and a ‘crank’, as lacking the most basic understanding of the functioning of a ‘complex, globalised world’. The grip of ‘orthodoxy’ disqualified the idea, and many more, without the need even to offer a counter-argument.
And yet, in this time of intersecting crises, when it seems like everything could, and should, have changed, it paradoxically feels as though very little has.

Zwanzig Jahre nach der Wende im Herbst 1989 stellt Boris Buden in seinem neuen Buch eine radikale Zeitdiagnose: Seit dem Kollaps der kommunistischen Regime, in dem nicht nur Diktatur und Planwirtschaft, sondern die Ära der industriellen Moderne selbst untergegangen sind, hat sich die Zukunft verabschiedet.

From 5. to 6. Dec. about 50 activists occupied a vacant building in the Universitätsstraße, Vienna. This occupation is the kick-off of further activities in order to build up the Solidarity University in Vienna. Activists will continue the struggle for adequate space for KriSU.

“We won’t pay for your crisis!” has echoed throughout universities worldwide. The significance of this is that the statement’s momentum has not only spread throughout educational institutions, but has also been present in other areas of society, bringing attention to the general failure of neoliberal capitalism and its appropriation of all spheres of life.

The new website of the specialization Theory (Bachelor Media and Arts) at the Zurich University of the Arts is online now.

A new publication with contribution by Jean Baudrillard, Igor Chubarov, an interview with Jerko Denegri, Branislav Dimitrijević, Hal Foster, Dejan Kršić, Nenad Malešević, Metahaven, Borislav Mikulić, Barbara Predan, Jacques Rancière, Feđa Vukić and WHW collective.

Statement from the arts and cultural sector in solidarity with the protests on Austrian universities.

After a manifestation of students today against the bologna-process and in solidarity withe the squating of the academy of fine arts two days ago, parts of the university of vienna have been occupied spontanously. Right now there are 2000 students participating in the occupation.

In July this year, The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, a UK based art activists' collective was commissioned by the Copenhagen Centre for Contemporary Art to make a new piece of work for Rethink an exhibition of “political” art during the December UN climate change summit. Last week the gallery pulled out claiming it could no longer continue to support the project for “practical reasons”. In fact they were frightened that the project involved non-violent civil disobedience and that this might be disapproved of by their funders.

“From Lesvos to an unknown land”: this was the response given by Mr X. at the NoBorder Camp in Mytilini, when asked where he planned to go after his arrival in Athens. Mr X. was acting as a spokesperson for a Somalian group, who, along with migrants from Afghanistan and Eritrea, were released from the “Pagani Welcome Centre” shortly before the official start of the NoBorder Camp. Pagani, the “reception centre” of Lesvos; the detention centre with a capacity of 250 people was filled with around 1,000 occupants – men, women and children – in August, when the Camp took place. Needless to say, Pagani was totally over-booked. A video made with a camera smuggled into the centre by one of the transit migrants clearly documents the unbearable conditions in which they were being detained.

The new issue of the magazine Chto Delat on "The Great Method" and Chto Delat's video film "Partisan Songspiel. Belgrade Story" are now available online.

Málaga ya lo sabía, pero además lo vio. El pasado 18 de septiembre lascalles del centro de Málaga presenciaron una manifestación como no serecuerda en esta ciudad tal vez desde las movilizaciones por el “No a laGuerra”. Más de mil personas exigieron otro modelo de ciudad, clamaroncontra la privatización de los espacios públicos, contra eldesmantelamiento de la cultura, contra la ciudad escaparate, contra lapolítica de los solares y la destrucción. Más de mil personas exigieronel derecho a la ciudad. Su voz gritó que la Casa Invisible debecontinuar, que la Casa Invisible continuará.

After a widely watched four-year legal battle, the CAE DefenseFund was officially dissolved last week, with its remainder of unexpendedfunds donated in two substantial gifts to the Center for ConstitutionalRights (CCR) and the New York affiliate of the American Civil LibertiesUnion (NYCLU).

International solidarity actions in front of all French embassies in Europe!

Even if the subtitle above might suggest it, this essay will not be a matter of evoking the old thesis of a linear revolutionary sequence to a socialist paradise. “Crisis”, “transition”, and “communism” instead name three divergently problematic concepts whose relations must be investigated anew.

The reader: New Public Spaces: Dissensual Political and Artistic Practices in the post-Yugoslav Context by Radical Education Collective is available in pdf

Simon Burgess, a lecturer at East Surrey College, is facing serious disciplinary action (and possible redundancy) for introducing students to the work of transgender artist Del LaGrace Volcano.

Hamburg: Mit dem "Bernhard Nocht Quartier (BNQ)" wollen Investoren den aseptischen Totraum auf dem ehemaligen Astragelände ins bewohnte St. Pauli hinein ausdehnen. Köhler und von Bargen planen auf 15 Grundstücken teure Modernisierungen, Abrisse und neue Luxuswohnungen. NO BNQ ist ein Zusammenschluss von MieterInnen und NachbarInnen gegen die Investorenpläne. Zudem befürchten viel BewohnerInnen einen Dominoeffekt, Gentrifizierung und weitere Mietpreissteigerungen.

Während am 16.07.2009 Präsident Prof. Martin Rennert den Rundgang feierlich im Hofgarten eröffnete, verbarrikadierten Studierende den Haupteingang mit Gittern und Transparenten. Innen und Außen stauten sich Menschenmengen. Hiermit brachten die Studierenden lautstark ihren Protest gegen ein nicht nachvollziehbares Berufungsverfahren an der Fakultät Bildende Kunst zum Ausdruck.
(>>Petition)

This morning the 21 students arrested two weeks ago came out from jail.

Please sign and circulate the petition for the release of 21 students protesting against the G8 University Summit in Torino!

At the break of the day, in several Italian cities police irrupted in students and activist places to make inspections and arrests. The repressive operation is coordinated by Turin's police and it refers to the May 19th demonstration in Turin against the G8 University Summit.

In a front-page ad in today's International Herald Tribune, the leaders
of the European Union thank the European public for having engaged in
months of civil disobedience leading up to the Copenhagen climate
conference that will be held this December. There was only one catch: the paper was fake.

In the past, the Isola has been almost everything except a bedroom community: a nest of Lombard shop-owners and workers; a haven in the Twenties for small-time criminals and bandits, boasting at times a warning for policemen not to enter; an irreducible anti-fascist and partisan community; a springboard for committees fighting demolition plans; an incubator of squats and occupations in the Nineties

Since May 15, when Russian artist Artem Loskutov was arrested in Novisibirsk, his case has sparked a massive outcry in Russia's activist and art communities. In the past three weeks, artists, activists, and ordinary concerned citizens all over Russia have carried out a series of pickets, protests, and actions in Loskutov's defense.

Creating Worlds is a multi-annual research project that investigates the relationship between art production and knowledge production in the context of the transformations and crises of contemporary capitalism.

We are the knowledge workers of information and media, of the publishing world and of the cultural industry; of school, university and research; of show business, education, design and comunication; we are determined to not simply suffer your crisis; we want to stem this drift and reverse the trend of this tendency. That’s why we will join and pursue together our common objectives. We firmly assert the contents of this Chart and will submit it to all those who share our condition.

At a moment when the right to education for all is being tacitly eliminated under the bureaucratic code of "participation", by an administrative decree and without prior public discussion, despite the fact that the right to education is recognized as the universal and binding goal of civilization even in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, we feel that we must stand up in defence of that right not just in our own name, but in the name of society in general.

New publication with texts from the project transform. Contributors: Boris Buden, Rosalyn Deutsche, Marcelo Expósito, Marina Garcés, Brian Holmes, Jens Kastner, Maurizio Lazzarato, Isabell Lorey, Nina Möntmann, Stefan Nowotny, Gerald Raunig, Gene Ray, Raúl Sánchez Cedillo, Simon Sheikh, Hito Steyerl, Universidad Nómada, Paolo Virno

In their new book, philosophers Stefan Nowotny and Gerald
Raunig include theoretical lines of rupture around the incipient
question "What is institutional critique?", develop thoughts on new
forms of institution and introduce neologisms as "monster institutions"
or "instituent practices".

Declaration of the Assembly of Social Movements at the World Social Forum 2009

Collective translation of a leaflet circulated in the occupied Athens School of Economics and elsewhere commenting the protest in Greece.

Tuesday evening, 24 Feb, 2009, at 10:05, "unknowns" lobbed a hand grenade at the Immigrants' Place, the social center located on Tsamadou Street in Exarhia (the offices of the Network for Political and Social Rights and Network for Social Support to Refugees and Migrants share the same space).

One hundred years ago, on the front page of Le Figaro, for the aesthetic consciousness of the world Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published the Manifesto that inaugurated the century that believed in the future. In 1909 the Manifesto quickly initiated a process where the collective organism of mankind became machinic. This becoming-machine has reached its finale with the concatenations of the global web and it has now been overturned by the collapse of the financial system founded on the futurisation of the economy, debt and economic promise. That promise is over. The era of post future has begun.

This new book is based on the symposium "Representations of the 'Other'. The Visual Anthropology of Pierre Bourdieu", centering around Bourdieu's extensive photographical work in colonial Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s and his influence on contemporary visual art practices.

In order to defend a public service of higher education and research, a group of French organisations agreed on the need to engage a European-scale mobilisation against the Lisbon strategy which aims at building a “market of knowledge”. In this perspective, they call for mobilisations all around Europe on March 18th, 19th and 20th 2009, at the occasion of the next spring summit.

The interview on Oliver Ressler's curatorial work at the Taipei Biennial was conducted for China Airlines Sky Couch Magazine, but its publication was cancelled "due to an unpredictable cause".

Groups from all over Europe gathered on the 10th and 11th of January 2009 in Paris to analyse collectively the current crises, to develop joint strategies and to discuss joint demands and alternatives in response to these crises.

The Madrid based editorial Traficantes de Sueños publishes the Spanish version of Gerald Raunig's book "Tausend Maschinen".

Universidad Nómada asks for solidarity with Nico and Javi, since years activists in the self-organized social centers, in the global movement, in the network of migrants, and in collective experiences like Mayday and the struggles against precarization.

We want first of all to say a collective yes! to the uprising in Greece. We are artists, writers and teachers who are connected in this moment by common friends and commitments. We are globally dispersed and are mostly watching, and hoping, from afar. But some of us are also there, in Athens, and have been on the streets, have felt the rage and the tear gas, and have glimpsed the dancing specter of the other world that is possible ...

In this new book, Boris Buden's and Stefan Nowotny's essays on translation are accompanied by interviews with Doris Bachmann-Medick, Ghislaine Glasson Deschaumes, Rada Iveković, Brigitta Kuster, Tomislav Longinović, Peter Osborne, Jon Solomon.

open letter on the inclusion of artist Alexey Beljaev-Gintvont in the short list of Kandinsky Prize 2008 in Moscow

This new publication presents the texts from the conference "Borders, Nations, Translations. The Political Limits of Cultural Trans-Nationalism" (http://translate.eipcp.net/conference), which took place in March 2008 in Vienna in conjunction with the transnational eipcp-project translate.

Editors Gene Ray and Gregory Sholette prepared a special issue of Third Text under the title "Whither Tactical Media?" with texts by Critical Art Ensemble, Ricardo Dominguez, Brian Holmes, Ana Longoni and many more.

Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben protests against the fact that nine young inhabitants of a French village including Tiqqun publisher Julien Coupat were sent before an anti-terrorist judge and "accused of criminal conspiracy with terrorist intentions."

The risk of illusory leftist dreams is low,­ at least no higher than the danger of paralytic self-critiques that miss the lessons to be learned from the left's contribution to the Obama victory.

Judith Butler warnt davor, Phänomen und Person Obama als "Erlösung" zu mystifizieren und die Ambivalenzen seiner Wahl in einer vereinheitlichenden Identifikation aufzulösen.

While in France the Parti Socialiste just seems to split and in Germany Die Linke becomes more and more successful, the new issue of the Austrian magazine for cultural politics, Kulturrisse, collects thoughts on the possibilities and conditions of a new left in Austria.

For a number of weeks in Italy the entire education system has been uprising. This movement opens up a new Europe-wide discussion on building up a counter-Bologna process, a European space of free circulation of knowledge, of social cooperation, of self-education.

What would it mean to win? is the title-giving question of the film by Zanny Begg and Oliver Ressler about Heiligendamm and the most current aspects of a social movement. Other questions resonate behind it: Is it actually possible to win? And before that: Against whom? And still more abstractly: Does anyone actually want to ‘win’?

Buchneuerscheinung im Verlag Turia + Kant: Band 8 der eipcp-Reihe republicart, Hito Steyerls "Die Farbe der Wahrheit", verhandelt klassische Fragestellungen der dokumentarischen Form – ihre Funktion als Knoten von Machtwissen, als Repräsentation der Realität oder mediale Selbstreflexion – anhand von neueren Beispielen aus dem Kunstfeld.

In collaboration with transform.eipcp.net the Madrid based publishing house Traficantes de Sueños published the new transform-reader on cultural production and instituent practices with texts by Boris Buden, Judith Butler, Marcelo Expósito, Alberto De Nicola, Brian Holmes, Jens Kastner, Maurizio Lazzarato, Isabell Lorey, Stefan Nowotny, Gerald Raunig, Gigi Roggero, Raúl Sánchez Cedillo (Universidad Nómada), Hito Steyerl, Benedetto Vecchi and Marion von Osten.

In her DVD-project “Antonio Negri. The Cell” (Actor Publisher, Barcelona/New York 2008) Angela Melitopoulos presents an arrangement of more than two hours of video-material based on three interviews with the famous Italian philosopher focusing on problems of exile, imprisonment, freedom and the construction of personal joy and community.

Der bei Unrast erschienene Reader "nicht alles tun", herausgegeben von Jens Kastner und Bettina Spörr, erforscht zivilen und sozialen Ungehorsam an den Schnittstellen von Kunst, radikaler Politik und Technologie.

European solidarity campaign for the Collettivo Sottotetto housing project in the Compagnoni quarter of Reggio Emilia, Italy