Dans cette première monographie de Claire Fontaine, la théoricienne politique et praticienne somatique Anita Chari explore les innovations théoriques et politiques du collectif artistique féministe pour éclairer une approche plus haptique et incarnée de la pratique de la théorie critique.
A User's Manual to Claire Fontaine explores the work of the feminist conceptual artist collective Claire Fontaine through the lens of her theoretical and political innovations, both inside and outside the context of contemporary art. Theorizing the ways in which Claire Fontaine's experimental approach can illuminate a more haptic, embodied practice of critical theory, this book delineates a series of theoretical techniques and procedures at the core of the artist's work, among them defunctionalization, Institutional Critique, human strike, tactile mimesis, desubjectivation, détournement, magic materialism, and feminist materialism.
Political theorist and somatic practitioner Anita Chari illuminates a larger field of practice for those working within the world of critical theory with this "user's manual" that seeks to reinvest theory with use value, drawing on the resources of critical contemporary art to engage with critical theory in ways that can become embodied, sensate, and tactile, and thus inform contemporary political practices.
« Fluently traversing critical theory, political philosophy, and artistic discourse, this is a brilliant, engaging book on the art and writings of Claire Fontaine—'readymade artist' and conceptual provocateur—as well as a vital elucidation of paths toward a transformative mode of living in the present. Writing with and through rather than, as usual, 'on' her subject, Chari provides her readers with a 'how-to' manual to Claire Fontaine's practice, finding in it a model for embodied resistance. »
Tom McDonough
Anita Chari est une théoricienne politique et une écrivaine basée à Portland (Oregon), et est professeure associée de sciences politiques à l'université de l'Oregon.
Claire Fontaine est un collectif artistique
conceptuel et
féministe basé à Paris et fondé en 2004, qui se présente comme un « artiste ready-made », créant des sculptures, des peintures, de textes, des vidéos, des installations.
