Critical Complicity
Complicity is the micro-political coalition that operates at these edges of established systems of order. In the shadowy zones of dubious alliances unfolds a critical potential, a multiplicity of subversive modes of production. The spectrum of entanglements in the art field is extensive; the abundance of ingestible positions forms the bases for tension-filled collaborations and multiplies the contradictions. Lupo Burtscher designed for the project the catalogue.
The aim of the project Critical Complicity is a topology of the complicit. Three aspect which we consider central to alternative artistic practice define the conjunction of different perspectives: the intersections of macro- and micro communities and the moments of interdependency, the frictions of illegal/legal as well as affect and seduction and the field of tactical media. Each of these aspects shall be investigated in a separate phase of the project and in collaboration with different partners. Yet it is only in the intersection of these parameters where the complexity of critical complicity emerges. It exposes the separating function of identitarian role play within the conventional art circuits – such as producer-recipient – as an ideological construction that blocks social energies just before their critical potentiality erupts. It is the deconstruction of the singular that ties the participants of Critical Complicity together. To oppose the current boom of participatory practice and to reactivate artistic collectivity beyond precarious altruism and “synergetic” co-authorship is one of the project’s core interests.
