Decentralization, Autonomy and Socially Engaged Art

The research topic deals with the question of whether the tension between artistic autonomy and the socio-political function of art can be described as a central motif in the art-theoretical and cultural-political discourse of the 20th and 21st centuries. The aim is to formulate a genealogy of those concepts, movements and cultural programs that were proposed in times of social transformation, with the Russian Revolution serving as the first historical case study. The comparison of the latter with contemporary discourses on the function of art enables an analysis of how art has been ascribed a specific political and transformative role in the past and today, not only despite but also because of its supposed autonomy.

This thesis will be written in English.