A theoretical excursus on the concept of political art in communism and its aftermath

Abstract

This paper confronts the conceptual meanings of "political art" in communist regimes and liberal democracies. The label "political art" is in general used to designate a wide variety of art productions, practices and art activities. What is political in art? The answer is all the more disputed that politics itself is a conflictive term. After the Second World War, opposition or support given to the expansion of the capitalist/corporatist culture were expressed via a multitude of ways of "making art politically". In a liberal democracy, art is seen and used as a tool to confront the antagonisms of reality. On the contrary, in totalitarian regimes, "making art politically" means that art is seen and used both as a weapon to distort reality in order to legitimate power and as a way of expressing otherness ("underground", "dissident art" from totalitarian regimes).