Abstract

One of the defining features of the public performance events of the late German artist, Christoph Schlingensief, is the manner in which he sets up what can be termed social experiments in motion that encompass installation, performance, and activism and intentionally obfuscate distinctions between art, reality, political, and social critique. These works, however, also involve the demonstration of private activities in public spaces in a way that implies a reification of the private sphere inaccessible to the tampering of political and corporate interests. The works cited in this chapter all reveal an interest in rejecting the status quo and a desire for generating a collective hope that can envision something better in a way that recalls the utopian philosophy of of the unorthodox Marxist philosopher, Ernst Bloch (1885-1977). His major works, The Spirit of Utopia (1923) and his three volume The Principle of Hope (1938-47), explore utopian principles and, importantly, the possibility held out by all artistic mediums to engage the viewer in imagining latent or unrealized possibilities for a better world. This essay explores the interfaces between the artist’s practice and the utopian philosopher’s ideas.