4. CAPÍTULO 2
4.1. El arbitraje en la constitución Colombiana
Transversality is generally understood as a “tool to open hitherto closed logics and hierarchies”, “a line rather than a point”, and a “militant, social, undisciplined creativity” (Genosko, 2014: 58, 81-82). As mentioned, transversality opposes both vertical and horizontal forms, producing lines that combine under a-centric structures, which cuts through different categories of identification, collective and institutional processes, and Universes of values and references. Within an art context Raunig (2002: online) further develops the discontinuous, diagonal and eruptive qualities of transversality. He offers three criteria from which to evaluate transversal movements between art and activist groups within a globalised-critical context: transnational, transsector, and a-centric constellations. These three characteristics emphasise the coming together of people from different national and professional backgrounds to protest against issues that are not limited to one country or one social and ethnic group. The goal of their struggle is not to form or connect a centre(s), but to maintain these “lines of
flight, ruptures, which continuously elude the systems of points and their coordinates” (Raunig, 2007: 205). The collectives, organisations and individuals temporarily collaborate and overlap under “a flowing political organisation with an open end” as a way to prevent future forms of unified models and power apparatuses intended to replace the current order (Raunig, 2002: online). This is something Raunig (Ibid) identifies especially in the organisational processes of social movements since the end of the 1990s, such as the Noborder Network and the anti-globalisation movement (see also: Feigenbaum, Frenzel and McCurdy, 2013). Historically, Raunig (2007: 205-206) argues that these transversal lines hadn’t occurred prior to the 1970s, and even then it was quite an abstract or partial theory which was used mostly to posit itself against structuralist theory. However, during the 1980s one can see the emergence of transversal projects, such as the anti- AIDS platform ACT-UP, the Third Wave Feminism platform Women’s Action Coalition (WAC), and the “Wohlfahrtsausschüsse […] against racist and nationalist policies” (Ibid).38 Apart from the criteria outlined by Raunig, I will
suggest another characteristic for transversality which is changeability. This characteristic is based on avant-garde theories which identify three types of criticism in avant-garde movements: social criticism, institutional criticism, and self-criticism (Bürger, 1984; Rancière, 2011; Raunig, 2007). My
38 It is worth mentioning other scholars from political theory who use transversality within
the context of global struggles, such as Richard K. Ashley (1989), David Campbell (1996), and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri (2006). Ronald Bleiker (2000: 119; cited from: Genosko, 2009: 63), for example, refers to the fall of Berlin Wall as a “transversal phenomenon – one in which various discursive dynamics and various forms of agency were operating in a multitude of interconnected spheres, including terrains of dissent that ranged from street protest to the publication of underground literary magazines”. For a comparison of the notion of transversality between Guattari and Foucault, see Genosko 2009: 64-69.
argument is that self-criticism within a transversal context leads to essential changes within the activities or goal of movements and groups as a result of both external and internal circumstances.
These criteria are used here to analyse the art collectives as transversal case studies and to structure the chapters in this thesis. As such each chapter will be dedicated to one or two elements of transversality. The second chapter examines the production of new collective subjectivities through socially engaged and collaborative art practices. It asks how the formation of new art communities can formulate a critique to the ethno- national model of identification and categorisation by which individual and collective subjects in Israel are classified. To answer this question this chapter analyses three projects, Muslala’s Between Green and Red (2012, 2013, 2015), Empty House’s Kibbutz DIY (2012) and ARTEAM’s The Garden
Library (2009-ongoing), which involve the construction of a space for an
existing or a new community. This discussion is framed within the socio- political context of the Israeli order, especially its current identity politics discourse in which nationality and ethnicity are its main reference points. Through the analysis of the case studies I would argue that the art collectives contributes to the expansion of other types of forms of identification that are not bound to the fixed categorisation of subjects living in Israeli – both citizens and non-citizens. These types of formations are understood as transnational and transectoral. They are transnational because they produce spaces with shared values, desires and needs that are not limited to a specific ethnic or national group. They are transectoral as they incorporate
subjects from different professional and disciplinary backgrounds, which circulate and share their skills and knowledge with each other.
In addition to the theoretical framework discussed in the introduction, I also rely on Mouffe’s (1993) non-essentialist approach towards subjects which stands at the core of her political theory examined in the second chapter. Mouffe’s theory is relevant to the discussion on the formation of transversal subjectivities within a heterogeneous and divided socio-political context. Similar to Rancière and Guattari, Mouffe (Ibid: 12) understands the subject as “a decentred, detotalized agent, a subject constructed at the point of intersection of a multiplicity of subject positions between which there exists no a priori or necessary relation”. This approach supports Mouffe’s (1993: 7; 2008: 9) model of radical and plural democracy which acknowledges differences and conflicts as essential components of democracy, as well as the struggle of marginal groups against inequality and exclusion. In the second chapter, I use Mouffe’s theory to posit an alternative to the exclusive and antagonistic model of the Israeli police order, and to explore the inter- subjective relationships between the art collective and the various participants and collaborators who take part in their projects. In addition to Mouffe, I also use Étienne Balibar’s (2004) discussion on border zones and citizenship to analyse the type of transnational space produced in Arteam’s project, The Garden Library, in Neve Sha’anan neighbourhood in Tel Aviv. According to Balibar (Ibid: 1-2), border zones are areas whose peripheral location and diverse population produce a different sense of collectivity which challenges the ethno-national meaning of citizenship. Compared to the other
projects discussed in the second chapter, The Garden Library is directly aimed at solving a political problem concerning the lack of educational and cultural spaces for asylum seekers in Israel. As such, it would be relevant to discuss the question of how can alternative forms of citizenships be practised through artistic means.
The third chapter focuses on the production of new spatio-temporal constellations that are understood as a-centric. It develops the notion of a- centricism through Deleuze and Guttari’s (1987: 6-17) theory of the rhizome. Briefly, the rhizome is a system of thought that derives its forms from the root system that characterises many types of plants. It is based on principles of heterogeneity, multiplicity and non-linearity (Ibid). The rhizome is used as a model to critique the linear and centralised historiography of Israeli art. As such, this chapter asks how the use of socially engaged and collaborative art practice can reconfigure the sites of art production and circulation, as well as Israeli art history’s modes of identification and categorisation. I examine this issue by analysing Muslala’s project The Black Panthers Road (2011). It was a collaboration with the residents of Musrara and members of the Israeli Black Panthers that commemorated the political and cultural legacy of this movement in the neighbourhood where it was formed. I would argue that this project is rhizomatic as it re-maps and re-contextualises Israeli political and art history within a new collective assemblage of references and values. This reconfiguration is seen in the contents addressed in The Black Panthers
Road, such a Mizrahi history, the subjects who collaborate in this project,
Panthers movement and local artists, and in the actual art route that paved
The Black Panther Road. This chapter also asks how the treatment of The Black Panther Road toward the aforementioned issues and figures is
different from the way they are perceived by the representational regime of Israeli art.
The fourth chapter analyses the notion of change in relation to socially engaged and collaborative art practice. The notion of change is understood here in two ways. The first is the impact the art collectives have on the political, communal and creative fields with which they are engaged. The second is the impact of bureaucratic, political and personal factors on the artistic directions taken by of the art collective. It asks how do the art collectives maintain autonomous spaces for artistic and creative expressions in light of processes of institutionalisation? I look at this question through the art collectives recent artistic development including the NGOisation of Arteam The Garden Library, and the institutionalisation of Muslala and Empty House recent projects, The Terrace (2016-ongoing) and The Factory (2016- ongoing), respectively. In this chapter, I would also introduce the last art collective – Onya collective – and its members’ attempts to find non-artistic partners to co-manage the communal garden space they created in the new CBS (The Ramp 2016-ongoing). The art collectives’ preferences for long- term projects and collaboration with representative bodies of the Israeli police order also raise the question of what inspires these kinds of choices? Using a transversal framework is then used here to recontextualise the meanings of change and institutionalisation which are often seen in the
critical art discourse as two oppositions. I would argue that these changes, which occur within the art collectives’ works, do not necessarily indicate the neutralization of their critical voice. Rather they suggest the creation of new sustainable economic and communal models that are based on civic initiative, shared labor and environmental awareness.