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Ana Teixeira Pinto: When I was President no one ate the Cat!
The Reasons of the Unreasonable in Neo-Fascist Politics.
AFTER REASON - Productive Undoing Is a Difficult Task invites artists and thinkers to explore the paradox legacy of European Enlightenment ideals. In this context cultural theorist Ana Teixeira Pinto will share her thoughts in a talk:
When I Was President No One Ate the Cat!
The Reasons of the Unreasonable in Neo-Fascist Politics
Since Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro were elected, liberals have tried to put a name to what they are defending from these illiberal leaders. Reason is the value they often settle for. But, as John Roberts argues in The Reasoning of Unreason, reason is, here, something “given, held onto, and then lost, through the forces of reaction.” This fails to take into account that universalist principles like "reason" are often pretexts for unilateral impositions upon those deemed irrational. Borrowing from Roberts, I would also resist the attempt to talk about a “loss of reason.” Rather than lost, reason “is being given a very different job.” This different job involves rendering weird white and cis pathologies as comprehensible politics.
In this talk I will argue that it is not unreason that haunts contemporary politics, but political conservatism, working to recast the interests of a particular group as a commitment to humanism and universal values.
Accessible free of charge and without registration.
Ana Teixeira Pinto
...is a writer and cultural theorist based in Berlin. She is a professor at the HBK Braunschweig and a theory tutor at the Dutch Art Institute. Her writings have appeared in publications such as Third Text, Artforum, Afterall, e-flux journal, Manifesta Journal, and Texte zur Kunst. She is the editor of the book series On the Antipolitical, published by Sternberg Press. Together with Kader Attia and Anselm Franke, she organized the conference and podcast series The White West: Whose Universal, which took place at HKW Berlin. In the frame of this project Ana co-edited The White West. Fascism, Unreason, and the Paradox of Modernity.
Details
Beursschouwburg
A. Ortsstraat 20-28
1000 Brussel
Taal: in het Engels
Prijs: gratis
marlena.von.wedel@goethe.de
Deel van de reeks AFTER REASON
Accessible free of charge and without registration.