ART/COMMONS. Internationalism, Post-capitalism, and the Radical Imagination

Wolverhampton School of Art / Centre for Art, Design, Research & Experimentation / FEINART 

By Massimilano Mollona

Abstract

In this FEINART lecture Massimiliano Mollona discusses his notion of ART/COMMONS as both horizon and praxis of human freedom. Neither just artistic co-production – or the equivalent notions of participatory art and relational aesthetics – nor simple direct action, ART/COMMONS is a set of practices and reflections that resists capitalist commodification, but at the same time are not subsumed to the neoliberal logic of free gifts and of the frictionless and egalitarian “inoperative community”. In the talk he focuses especially on the Institute of Radical Imagination, a think-tank consisting of curators, artists, and scholars, involved in forms of research intervention for the transition into post-capitalism and at the threshold of Europe and the Mediterranean. 

Biography

Massimiliano Mollona (Rome, Italy, 1969) is a writer, filmmaker and anthropologist based at Goldsmiths College, London. His practice, situated at the intersection of pedagogy, art and activism, focuses on the relationships between art and political economy. He conducted extensive fieldwork in Italy, UK, and Brazil, looking at the relationships between economic development and political identity through participatory and experimental film and curatorial projects. He is one of the founders of the Institute of Radical Imagination (IRI) and member of the collective Freethought.

Centre for Art, Design, Research & Experimentation

The Centre for Art, Design, Research & Experimentation (CADRE) accommodates researchers within the Wolverhampton School of Art. It was established in 2006 to explore and develop the beneficial effect of art and design upon society. The Centre is clustered into three focused areas of research interests: Art, Society and Social Practice; Digital Technology Theory and Practice; Material and Theoretical Practice.