Art against Violence

`Art against Violence` was a slogan used in 2002 by a group of international artists who, by means of their art work, drew attention to physical, cultural or structural violence. The political nature of this movement raises a lot of questions, particular for political sciences. This research project will develop, systematize and answer some of those questions from the perspective of gender. In this way an unprecedented attempt is being made to utilise the `Philosophy of Art and Life` written by the American philosopher Susanne Katharina Langer (1895-1985) for a `Political Theory of the Arts`. To do so means to enter new theoretical ground in at least two ways. The first is in Langer`s main thesis, namely that all kinds of art are articulated presentations of intuitive knowledge constituted by experience. Hence she can say that all artistic expressions are of inherent cognitive character and cultural semantics can be considered not only in the fields of language and science, but also in all forms of articulations and presentations of life, in particular in the arts as one of them. The second way can be ascribed to the fact that so far no systematic approach to a philosophy of art has been undertaken from the perspective of political philosophy. This void shall be filled by this research project. The theoretical part of the project is complemented by an empirical one. Five associations of female artists from different ethnical, cultural, social and religious backgrounds, which work internationally and joined to convey political contents through their arts, will support the project. Their interviews will focus on the following key- categories: (A) The arts as a medium to transmit intuitive (sensual emotional) knowledge. (B) The arts as a medium to cultivate both the artists` as well as the spectators` feelings and emotions by reflecting on experiences of violence, in particular violence against women. (C) The arts as an instrument to motivate political activity. The project aims at establishing the basis for a political theory of the arts. This basis shall, with respect to theoretical values, serve to understand the importance of the arts as political medium and present new insights in the area of gender studies, peace and conflict studies, development-, human right policies and international politics. With respect to practical values it shall show how art work can be used by Non-governmental organisations for political purposes regarding the above mentioned areas.

The research project "Art against Violence" was originally designed with the aim of establishing the basis of a new gender-sensitive and political art theory. This aim could be reached by connecting Hannah Arendt`s political philosophy with Susanne K. Langers`s art philosophy and by reading their texts from a gender perspective although neither the US-American art philosopher nor the German political philosopher works with a gender concept. According to Langer and Arendt and to the project results as presented here, artistic creation and articulation have no a priori notion of gender and can, therefore, not be interpreted in terms of essence and biology. For this very reason the project results can form the basis of a new gender-sensitive art theory which is clearly different from the patriarchally defined arts and aesthetics as part of the occidental mainstream philosophy which we have been familiar with ever since the Greeks (Plato and Aristotle). Following Susanne K. Langer`s insights as presented in her "theory of `das Lebendige` and the mind", art and art theory can be seen as the logical expression of a "morphology of emotions" whose implications are fundamental not only to aesthetics but to all the other relevant areas of classical philosophy: ontology, epistemology, and ethics. With the help of a "mental phase", a concept which Langer uses in connection with her "morphology of emotions" as articulated in the arts and whose usefulness she demonstrates, the American art philosopher goes beyond the traditional body-soul dualism. She thus creates the basis of a new epistemology in which reason and feelings are understood to be equivalent and not hierarchically ordered with the first to be of normative value for the latter. Seen from a gender perspective, Langer`s approach and theory are revolutionary. By understanding gender to be utterly irrelevant for cognitive and emotive or mental capacities and skills, she transcends the question of gender as such and shows the absurdity of real-political consequences following from that old premise which, to this very day, has influenced our understanding of the emotions. Using the results and insights of her art theory, Langer develops an "act-dynamic theory of `das Lebendige` and the mind" whose principles are here being compared to Hannah Arendt`s political philosophy. It is fascinating to see that Arendt, without knowing Langer`s theory, uses very similar ideas and principles, especially when conceptualizing the notions of natality, performativity, spontaneity, plurality, or liberty. The validity or usefulness of Arendt`s originally "gender-neutral" concepts was confirmed by 20th century feminist art theory and art works which show that the arts are of crucial political relevance in more than one sense. They are not only a seismograph for measuring socio-political conditions, but have to be recognized as an independent form of cognition and can, as such, establish the basis of a new political anthropology upon which a new moral philosophy may be built.