Unsettled Earth: Aesthetics of the Repressed

This keynote takes political and social practices, particularly within the anti-colonial tradition in Palestine, as the site from which aesthetics are proposed, envisioned, materialized and theorized.  Drawing on historic examples of popular rebellion and social organization from the streets of Palestine and other geographies, HajYahia traces how image-making, poetics and performativity are anchored in sociality rather than institutionality. Against the rendering of aesthetics and politics as two separate domains, this lecture proposes an aesthetic theory of revolt that reads historical, ideological, affective and material dimensions as co-constitutive and inseparable. The keynote will be followed by a conversation between HajYahia and writer Tobi Haslett.

Adam HajYahia’s work examines how aesthetic practices of image-making, performance, writing, and sound—both within and outside the art market—reflect on, simulate, initiate, and break apart sociality and political consciousness, particularly after the advent of colonial modernity. Through his work as a scholar, writer, and curator, he explores the at once harmonious and dissonant relationships between psychoanalysis and social organization, desire and labor, and settler-colonial and imperial economies, as well as counter forms of political rebellion.

Tobi Haslett has written about art, film, literature and politics for n+1, Harper’s, and elsewhere. He is currently a fellow at ICI Berlin.