Minor Compositions Podcast Episode 17 Militant Aesthetics with Martin Lang 

For this episode we talk with art historian and painter Martin Lang about this book Militant Aesthetics: Art Activism in the 21st Century. How are practices of art activism changing in the current political and media climate? What tensions exist within these forms of political engagement and how can they be productively worked with rather ignored or denied?

“Protest art is not a new concept and yet this book argues that after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 distinctly 21st-century forms of art activism emerged. On the one hand these became militant as artists retained belief in the possibility of radical political change through art. On the other hand, this belief developed in a hostile environment, when anti-terror legislations reclassified activists and artists as terrorists. Militant Aesthetics sheds light on numerous international case studies of modern art activism and the different ways they can be classified as militant. Combining these examples with the pioneering thought of Badiou, Žižek, Rancière and Mouffe, Lang investigates the instances, attributes and rules of militant art in order to introduce a new overall theory of 21st-century militant aesthetics.”

Bio: Martin Lang is Senior Lecturer in fine art at the University of Lincoln, UK. He trained as a painter before completing a PhD in History & Philosophy of Art, researching militant forms of art activism. He makes paintings, photographs and activist actions that tackle themes of authenticity, science fiction, political imagination and post-truth. Martin's research in art and politics has been widely published in academic journals including Art & the Public Sphere, Ekphrasis and the Hazlitt Review. His book Militant Aesthetics (Bloomsbury 2024) has been described as "a significant remapping of activist and political art" (Karen van den Berg). He also writes for Trebuchet magazine and the Conversation. 

Intro / Outro Music: Joseph Beuys - Sonne statt Reagan