africologne(4): Der Choreograf Raphael Moussa Hillebrand über machtkritische und machterhaltende Kunst

Resistant practice in art is our starting point. This raises the question: resistance to what? Many of us probably remember waking up from La-La-Land. How we realized that the political and economic system we live in is not what it seems. In Germany and Europe, values such as human dignity and human rights are invoked. It is repeatedly asserted that what matters is what someone does and not what class or background they come from. That is a lie. A lie that is necessary to ensure that the unjust capitalist system continues to be tolerated by the majority of the population. In reality, we have known since the thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean and the handling of the coronavirus pandemic that capital counts more than human dignity in Europe. We live in an unjust system that we must overcome. "Babylon must fall."

Resistance is necessary. Rosa Luxemburg called it barbarism and explained in "The Accumulation of Capital" how capitalism inevitably leads to injustice, exploitation, colonialism and war. Famous personalities such as Fela Kuti, Bob Marley and Nina Simone are celebrated by mainstream society after their deaths for their fight for justice. During their lifetime, however, they felt the cold wind of the establishment, which demanded that they conform and not address important issues. The appropriation of activists like Martin Luther King by the mainstream is always frightening. MLK was a staunch critic of capitalism.

«The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.»
–Speech to SCLC Board, March 30, 1967.

This insight leads us to the following question. Which art is critical of power and which is power-preserving? George Orwell proclaimed in his publication of the same name: «All Art Is Propaganda«. Because art either relates to the burning issues of our time or it distracts from them. And so all art is propaganda in the sense of maintaining or criticizing power.