New "Republicart" Website about Progressive Art Practice

Alan Moore writes:

From Chicago, Greg Sholette sends this announcement of a new European website, Republicart.net. Here is the flak:

“The new website of republicart is now online. the transnational research
project on progressive practices in public art starts with a tool-kit
including manifesto, news, calendar and more about the discourse and
practices of participatory, interventionist and activist art.
http://www.republicart.net

Nucleus of the website is the project’s multilingual webjournal: you
will find the brandnew issue 'hybrid resistance' assembling texts on the
recent intersection of art and political practices in the context of the
protests against economic globalisation.
http://www.republicart.net/disc/hybridresistance/i ndex.htm

”Republicart is a 3-years project of the eipcp --- European Institute for
Progressive Cultural Policies in cooperation with Galerija Skuc,
Ljubljana; Goldsmiths College/University of London; Kunstraum der
Universität Lüneburg, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga; and
many other partners and art institutions throughout Europe. In 12
exemplary art projects and 12 discursive events, artists, theorists and
institutions will explore and develop different lines of artistic
production, contemporary theory and cultural politics.
Republicart is supported by the culture 2000 programme of the European
Union.

eipcp -- european institute for progressive cultural policies
contact@eipcp.net
www.eipcp.net
a-1060 vienna, gumpendorfer strasse 63b”

This is an important information resource for “New Public Art,” with much of interest to artists, activists, and students of cultural criticism. The site is a little cryptic in structure. (Most of the texts are in the “pre-public” segment, with more in “kunst 2.0”.) A quick look turned up a piece by one Marion Hamm, “Reclaim the Streets! Global Protests and Local Space” nicely written and very well-sourced. The site promises more – “recent reflections of activists-artists on their practices including the Yes Men, hybridvideotracks, Communication Guerrilla, no one is illegal, PublixTheatreCaravan and others.”

Overall this site reeks of the academy, pushing hard off of Walter Benjamin, French ‘68er sociologist Raymonde Moulin, Pierre Bourdieu, etc. These German-speaking authors are trying to corral this international publically-funded artistic practice into an anti-corporate globalization context. It’s an important job, and in New York it’s crippled by the timorous and compromised state of the local academy.