Critical Theory; Sociology; Art
How can we affirm the independence of critical artists and intellectuals when confronted by the new crusaders of Western culture, the neoconservative champions of morality and good taste, the sponsorship of multinationals and the patronage of the state, and the self-indulgent preoccupations of fashionable theorists who have lost all touch with reality? How can we safeguard the world of free exchange which is and must remain the world of artists, writers and scholars?
These are some of the questions discussed by the leading social thinker Pierre Bourdieu and the artist Hans Haacke in this remarkable new book.
Their frank and open dialogue on contemporary art and culture ranges widely, from censorship and obscenity to the social conditions of artistic creativity. Among the examples they discuss are the controversies surrounding the exhibition of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano, the debates concerning multiculturalism and ethnic diversity, and the uses of art as a means of contesting and disrupting symbolic domination. They also explore the central themes of Hans Haacke's work, which is used to illustrate the book.
Free Exchange is a timely intervention in current debates and a powerful analysis of the conditions and concerns of critical artists and intellectuals today.
Pierre Bourdieu is Professor of Sociology at the Collège de France;
Director of Studies at the École des hautes etudes en sciences sociales; editor of the journal Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales which he founded in 1975; and, since 1989, editor of the European review of books Liber. He is one of the most outstanding figures in contemporary thought. His many publications include The Field of Cultural Production and The Rules of Art.
Hans Haacke is a visual artist. He was born in Germany in 1936, and has been living in New York since 1965. He is Professor at The Cooper Union. He has had personal exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; The Tate Gallery, London; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. In 1993 he shared, with Nam June Paik, the Golden Lion for the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Cover illustration: Hans Haacke, Calligraphie (detail) 1989. Photo: Fred Scruton.
Printed in Great Britain
ISBN 0-8047-2496-2