Aleš Erjavec, Oana Șerban
Abstract
This interview is inspired the most important working-hypothesis
presented in the volume Aesthetic Revolutions and the Twentieth-Century
Avant-Garde Movements, edited by Aleš Erjavec, that questions the legitimacy
of the distinction between aesthetic and artistic avant-gardes, supported
by the relationship of each concept with the modern revolutionary
politics. The relevance of this contrast for determining modernity both in
its ideological shape and its continuity, in the terms of postmodernity
will be criticized in our discussion with professor Erjavec, reflecting on the
manner in which the artistic communities representative for Surrealism,
Russian constructivism, Situationist International, Dadaism, Italian Futurism,
1960s American Art, as well as for Slovenian, Mexican or Romanian artistic
movements of the 20th century opened the path for different democratic
or totalitarian political attitudes, practices and ambitions.