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Subversive affirmation is an artistic performance that overemphasizes prevailing
ideologies An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
and thereby calls them into question.Inke Arns and Sylvia Sasse
Subversive Affirmation. On Mimesis as Strategy of Resistance.
In: IRWIN: East Art Map, London / Ljubljana 2005
Simultaneously with affirmation, the affirmed concepts are revealed, and artists distance themselves from those concepts. Strategies of subversive affirmation include "over-identification", "over-affirmation" and "yes revolution". According to Inke Arns and Sylvia Sasse the methods of subversive affirmation have been developing in Eastern European art since the 1960s. Subversive affirmation was initially chosen because of the necessity to conform to socialist ideology, which is then adopted deliberately. In the late 80s these tactics were carried over to Western art and activism. The term "affirmation" was introduced by
Moscow conceptualists The Moscow Conceptualist, or Russian Conceptualist, movement began with the Sots art of Komar and Melamid in the early 1970s, and continued as a trend in Russian art into the 1980s. It attempted to subvert socialist ideology using the strategies ...
to describe
Vladimir Sorokin Vladimir Georgiyevich Sorokin (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Гео́ргиевич Соро́кин; born 7 August 1955) is a contemporary postmodern Russian writer and dramatist. He has been described as one of the most popular writers ...
's novels. Sorokin exaggerated serious realism in the style of the 19th-century novel or in the style of
socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
. Subversive affirmation is not a form of
reverse psychology Reverse psychology is a technique involving the assertion of a belief or behavior that is opposite to the one desired, with the expectation that this approach will encourage the subject of the persuasion to do what is actually desired. This techniqu ...
, in part, because it involves mimesis, but mostly because it does not operate according to a predetermined outcome and instead treats
The Symbolic The Symbolic (or Symbolic Order of the Borromean knot) is the order in the unconscious that gives rise to subjectivity and bridges intersubjectivity between two subjects; an example is Jacques Lacan's idea of desire as the desire of the Othe ...
as part of the unconscious. It functions therefore in relation to an anonymous symbolic order and not in terms of individual
ego psychology Ego psychology is a school of psychoanalysis rooted in Sigmund Freud's structural id-ego-superego model of the mind. An individual interacts with the external world as well as responds to internal forces. Many psychoanalysts use a theoretical c ...
. The concept of subversive affirmation is often credited to the Slovenian philosopher
Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New ...
and his 1993 essay 'Why Are Laibach and the Neue Slowenische Kunst Not Fascists?' In his essay Žižek made use of the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan to argue that in its musical and artistic performance,
Laibach Laibach () is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with the industrial, martial, and neo-classical genres. Formed in the mining town of Trbovlje (at the time in Yugoslavia) in 1980, Laibach represents the musical wing of the Neue S ...
, a band that makes use of totalitarian-style aesthetics, was not providing an ironic imitation of official
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
state ideology, but was frustrating the system by over-identifying with its obscene
superego The id, ego, and super-ego are a set of three concepts in psychoanalytic theory describing distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus (defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche). The three agents are theoretical con ...
underside and manipulating the process of
transference Transference (german: Übertragung) is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which the "feelings, attitudes, or desires" a person had about one thing are subconsciously projected onto the here-and-now Other. It usually concerns feelings from ...
with the
totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...
state. For subversive affirmation to be effective, its address must be anonymous rather than targeted. In contrast to film theories that give a specific gender identification to Lacan's notion of the gaze, subversive affirmation emphasizes the inconsistency of symbolic mandates and the fact that there is no Big Other. This is why Laibach avoid both irony as well as the category of art. They also deny that what they do is intended to be subversive. Kostis Stafylakis argues that Athenian art group FYTA's work through radical ambivalence includes examples of subversive affirmation - in their work titled 'The One Hundred Worst Greeks' they include many that would be universally agreed to be bad along with controversial choices and famous composer
Mikis Theodorakis Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis ( el, Μιχαήλ "Μίκης" Θεοδωράκης ; 29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. He scored for the films '' Zorba the Greek'' (1964), '' Z'' ...
. Žižek's psychoanalytic approach to subversive affirmation and over-identification is applied to the study of the work of
Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ...
,
IRWIN Irwin may refer to: Places ;United States * Irwin, California * Irwin, Idaho * Irwin, Illinois * Irwin, Iowa * Irwin, Nebraska * Irwin, Ohio * Irwin, Pennsylvania * Irwin, South Carolina * Irwin County, Georgia * Irwin Township, Venango Co ...
, The Yes Men,
Atelier Van Lieshout Joep van Lieshout (born 1963), is a Dutch artist and sculptor born in Ravenstein, Netherlands, and founder of Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL). Life and work Van Lieshout received his formal education and training from the Academy of Modern Art in ...
, and Christoph Schlingensief in a book edited by the Dutch collective BAVO in 2007. In ''Brave New Avant Garde'', Marc James Léger develops Žižek's theory in relation to Lacan's concept of the Sinthome and the Discourse of the Analyst ( Four discourses), arguing that
Social practice (art) Social practice or socially engaged practice is an art medium that focuses on engagement through human interaction and social discourse. Social practice goes by many names, including relational aesthetics, new genre public art,abreu, manuel artu ...
can in some cases be understood in its connection to the
Avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
. Subversive affirmation is not to be confused with transgression, parody, deception or masquerade. It does not emerge from a place of
aggression Aggression is overt or covert, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual; although it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some. It may occur either reacti ...
or as what the French philosopher
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and ho ...
defines as a counter-discourse. In this sense Léger compares over-identification to Lacan's Discourse of the Analyst, as opposed to the Discourse of the Master or the Discourse of the Hysteric. In
Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
, the use of conservative trappings, for example the illusionistic forms of representation in the paintings of
René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bounda ...
, or the Surrealists' bourgeois clothing and bureaucratic model of organization, could be thought of as antecedents to subversive affirmation. In an essay on the work of Hans Haacke,
Fredric Jameson Fredric Jameson (born April 14, 1934) is an American literary critic, philosopher and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends, particularly his analysis of postmodernity and capitalism. Jam ...
proposed that an art that acknowledges the logic of the image-world of
late capitalism Late capitalism, late-stage capitalism, or end-stage capitalism is a term first used in print by German economist Werner Sombart around the turn of the 20th century. In the late 2010s, the term began to be used in the United States and Canada t ...
could be characterized as homeopathic, affirming the logic of the
simulacrum A simulacrum ( plural: simulacra or simulacrums, from Latin '' simulacrum'', which means "likeness, semblance") is a representation or imitation of a person or thing. The word was first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, ...
to the point at which it is dialectically transformed into something else. Much like Jameson's notion of cognitive mapping, subversive affirmation and over-identification are best conceived in terms of a critical mapping of ideology. Slavoj Žižek, ed. ''Mapping Ideology'' (London: Verso, 1994).


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Art movements {{Theat-stub