This article attempts to offer a systemic discussion about the paradigm shift away from the neoliberal Washington consensus and its ramifications for the worlds of performing and visual arts. The article first provides an overview of discussions of political economy in the arts, in which the typically speculative arguments are contrasted with sociological and historical knowledge which reveals a limit to them. The article then describes contemporary political economy in the era of post-globalization and makes a few proposals on how the arts can think through it.
Articles by Mi You
Mi You is a curator and professor of Art and Economies at the University of Kassel / documenta Institut, where she leads the research on the social, economic, and political conditions of art, the current ideological regroupings in art and culture, and where she incubates projects on “upstreaming art” as well as on sustainable cultural funding policies. She’s the author of the book Art in a Multipolar World (Hatje Cantz, 2024). As a curator, she works between ancient and futuristic imaginaries of societies and technologies, and the history, political theory and philosophy of Eurasia. Her most recent exhibitions include the 13th Shanghai Biennale (2020–21) and “Lonely Vectors” at Singapore Art Museum (2022), “Clouds, Power and Ornament” at Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (2023), and “Really? Art and Knowledge in Time of Crisis” at Framer Framed (2024). On the social front, she serves as chair of committee on Media Arts and Technology for the transnational NGO Common Action Forum and is a Berggruen Institute Europe fellow (2023–24).