"Art in the Age of Populism" by Eric Corijn — IETM Brussels Opening Keynote Speech — 23 Nov 2017
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 24/11/2017

IETM - International network for contemporary performing arts presented the opening keynote speech Art in the Age of Populism by Eric Corijn from the IETM Brussels Plenary Meeting 2017 livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Thursday 23 November at 16:00 - 18:00 CET (Brussels, UTC +1)

IETM Brussels Plenary Meeting gathered 800 performing arts professionals from all over the world to discuss the role of art in the age of populism.

The opening keynote speaker Eric Corijn is a professor in Urban Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.

“Populism” has become a container concept which needs clarification. But regardless of the shapes it takes, it comes down to a way of doing politics, pretending to express directly the voice of the people without mediation. Thus it is a symptom of the crisis of representative democracy, of the void between politics and the citizen. If we don’t want to give up on democracy by choosing for an authoritarian system, we have to search for new forms of democracy. That search, intertwined as it is with the question of representation, challenges the producers of art, culture and knowledge. What are the shortcomings of existing forms of representation? How can art and science contribute to participatory democracy? What are the mental maps for a world in transition?