City-Squats: The cinema as a space for political action

This project aims at investigating groups of activists, artists and filmmakers who constitute themselves as politically relevant movements by squatting cinema spaces. It thereby concentrates on the comparison between groups of cinema activists in western and eastern Europe since 1945 and thus aims to elaborate the differences and similarities in the constitution of politically relevant oppositional and non-conformist movements in democratic and totalitarian political systems. The following movements have been chosen for a detailed investigation: the Expanded Cinema (approx. 1966-1985) and its confrontation with leftist movements around the "Free Cinemas" in Germany and Austria in the 1960s and 1970s; the Cinéma Lettriste (approx. 1951-1991), the Nouvelle Vague (approx. 1958-1980) and the ciné-club movement in France in the 1960s and 1970s; and the Yugoslav Black Cinema (also called "Open Cinema" or "novi film", approx. 1950-1980). The first goal of this project is to compose a plural history of the development of such cinema-activist groups by situating them in the overall history of emancipatory and artistic movements in the 20th century and by showing cross-influences and differences between them. The second goal is to investigate how such cinema movements, as well as the public they manage to attract through their productions, are involved in the constitution of a conflictual "public sphere" (in western Europe) and an "informal public sphere" (in eastern Europe). In doing so, this project refers to recent developments of theories of the "public sphere" and of "social space", but relates these concepts particularly to studies from the field of cultural history that investigate how media continually transformed such a public sphere in the second half of the 20th century. By completing these goals the project will contribute to a still unwritten genealogy of the public sphere as a realm of the political that does not focus primarily on the spaces and media of "politics" in a narrow sense but includes spaces and image-worlds of mass-culture, which are often described as private areas of consumerism and of escape from political responsibilities. The city will thereby be investigated as a historical and symbolic space for the formation of the political imagination and for the staging of struggles between different cultural agents. The role of media and their effects on people`s perceptions, emotions and practices will be given special attention. By focusing on the comparison of cinema movements in western and eastern Europe the project contributes to the investigation of a contemporaneously challenging, but, especially in Austria, still little-researched phenomenon: the differences and similarities in the development of a political culture in the western and eastern parts of Europe, which will in the future be called upon to "grow together".

This project aims at investigating groups of activists, artists and filmmakers who constitute themselves as politically relevant movements by squatting cinema spaces. It thereby concentrates on the comparison between groups of cinema activists in western and eastern Europe since 1945 and thus aims to elaborate the differences and similarities in the constitution of politically relevant oppositional and non-conformist movements in democratic and totalitarian political systems. The following movements have been chosen for a detailed investigation: the Expanded Cinema (approx. 1966-1985) and its confrontation with leftist movements around the "Free Cinemas" in Germany and Austria in the 1960s and 1970s; the Cinéma Lettriste (approx. 1951-1991), the Nouvelle Vague (approx. 1958-1980) and the ciné-club movement in France in the 1960s and 1970s; and the Yugoslav Black Cinema (also called "Open Cinema" or "novi film", approx. 1950-1980). The first goal of this project is to compose a plural history of the development of such cinema-activist groups by situating them in the overall history of emancipatory and artistic movements in the 20th century and by showing cross-influences and differences between them. The second goal is to investigate how such cinema movements, as well as the public they manage to attract through their productions, are involved in the constitution of a conflictual "public sphere" (in western Europe) and an "informal public sphere" (in eastern Europe). In doing so, this project refers to recent developments of theories of the "public sphere" and of "social space", but relates these concepts particularly to studies from the field of cultural history that investigate how media continually transformed such a public sphere in the second half of the 20th century. By completing these goals the project will contribute to a still unwritten genealogy of the public sphere as a realm of the political that does not focus primarily on the spaces and media of "politics" in a narrow sense but includes spaces and image-worlds of mass-culture, which are often described as private areas of consumerism and of escape from political responsibilities. The city will thereby be investigated as a historical and symbolic space for the formation of the political imagination and for the staging of struggles between different cultural agents. The role of media and their effects on people`s perceptions, emotions and practices will be given special attention. By focusing on the comparison of cinema movements in western and eastern Europe the project contributes to the investigation of a contemporaneously challenging, but, especially in Austria, still little-researched phenomenon: the differences and similarities in the development of a political culture in the western and eastern parts of Europe, which will in the future be called upon to "grow together".