Whose names count? Jacques Rancière on Alfredo Jaar’s Rwanda Project

This article focuses on Jacques Rancière’s reflections on Alfredo Jaar’s The Rwanda Project in the context of wider discussions of the politics of naming the dead. Against the claim that his reflections reveal a depoliticizing, universalist commitment to naming all the dead, it contends that foregrounding the relation between naming and counting in this discussion shows Rancière’s focus to be the policing and politics of naming. In an original argument, it focuses specifically on how, for Rancière, in this context, individualized proper names function politically and dissensually. To do so it explores (i) Rancière’s analysis of the role of the mainstream media during the Rwandan genocide in perpetuating the police order (or order of grievability) which divided nameable individuals from anonymous masses, thereby constituting living and dead Rwandans as of little or no account, and (ii) his account of how Jaar’s art is able to disrupt the ‘partition of the sensible’ underpinning this count. The article concludes by considering how Rancière’s ideas about the relationship between naming and counting and between politics and police serve as a useful supplement to and extension of existing discussions of grievability

American Art Since 1945 -- Checklist

Checklist for the exhibition American Art Since 1945, August 18–October 3, 1976 at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts

GLBT events

An exhibition schedule from the Museum of Modern Art for their upcoming showcase, Gays and Film: Get Reel

GLBT events

A schedule for the Gays & Film: Get Reel exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art

GLBT events

A news release from the Museum of Modern Art about their upcoming film festival, Gays and Film: Get Reel

MoMADirectorsDepartmentHeads

Dataset of the chronology of Museum Directors and Department Head

MoMA Collection Artists

<p>Basic catalog information for artists with works in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), including artist name, nationality, gender, birth year, death year, Wiki QID and Getty ULAN ID. </p