Aesthetic Precariousness

Abstract

Precarization of labor and social precarity are expanding phenomena around the world. They are the result of the neoliberal policies and globalization during the last decades. These economic and social growing conditions intertwine with the growing precariousness of art today, a condition which is deepening in the last decades. “Aesthetic precariousness” is a specific condition of contemporary art and aesthetics in late capitalist culture, although it hast some roots in what Jacques Rancière has called “aesthetic regime of art”. This paper essays to summarize three relevant aspects of aesthetics precariousness: 1) art as a precarious expression of that condition; 2) art as a precarious medium of reflection on that precarious condition; and 3) art-discourses (i.e., contemporary art criticism and philosophy) as precarious ways of discourse.