Abstract
In his essay The Three Ecologies published in 1989 Félix Guattari invents an ‘eco’-art (art de ‘l’éco’).1 This concept can be misunderstood in several ways.
First, one might think of eco-art as ‘green art’, as art of the Green movement or a Green party. Conceiving of such art simply as an effect of a new ideology
constitutes a problematic and instrumentally restricted relation between art and (environmental) politics – be it green politics as a single-issue case or as holistic
mythologies of nature. Second, another possible problem resides in a specific form of oiko-logy, connoting the domestication, the domestic capture of artistic
praxis. And, third, there is the danger of an art-life cliché following on from the bumpy genealogy from Richard Wagner to Joseph Beuys. Inherent to all these
misinterpretations of the Guattarian eco-art is an identitarian or moralistic projection of a full, complete and uniform community.
First, one might think of eco-art as ‘green art’, as art of the Green movement or a Green party. Conceiving of such art simply as an effect of a new ideology
constitutes a problematic and instrumentally restricted relation between art and (environmental) politics – be it green politics as a single-issue case or as holistic
mythologies of nature. Second, another possible problem resides in a specific form of oiko-logy, connoting the domestication, the domestic capture of artistic
praxis. And, third, there is the danger of an art-life cliché following on from the bumpy genealogy from Richard Wagner to Joseph Beuys. Inherent to all these
misinterpretations of the Guattarian eco-art is an identitarian or moralistic projection of a full, complete and uniform community.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Documents of Contemporary Art |
Subtitle of host publication | Activism |
Editors | Afonso Dias Ramos and Tom Snow |
Pages | 186-189 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-0-85488-315-8, 978-0-262-37650-1 |
Publication status | Published - 24 Oct 2023 |