Anti-fascist Art Theory: A Roundtable Discussion

Taking the form of a conversation among three art theorists whose work focuses on contemporary art, culture and emancipatory politics on the left, this roundtable article begins from the question: what concepts and ideas can be drawn into an anti-fascist art theory today? The discussion opens by considering the ambivalence towards speaking about fascism in current debates beyond art and the complex positioning of art between (or rather, across) the status quo and its subversion; proceeds by examining the current technological apparatus as regards the mediation of subjectivity; looks at the articulation of sexuality and whiteness; and concludes by proposing that anti-fascism as a complex political position that crosses an art field sustained also by an attention economy must address the field’s structural procedures of exclusion while also maintain its focus on the specificity of fascist politics