Activist Aesthetics in the Post-Socialist Balkans Resistance, Rebellion, Emancipation

I examine cases of activist aesthetics in the artistic acts, practices, and works related to contemporary political and social activism of progressive and left-wing movements and groups in the post-Yugoslav region. In order to understand the variety of activist aesthetics, including contemporary art, performance, choir recitals, theatre, poetry, mural painting, cinema, and protest art, as well as the specific influence of socialist heritage, I build upon Hans-Thies Lehmann’s distinction between the aesthetics of resistance and the aesthetics of rebellion. I show how artists productively use and combine these two aesthetics as well as how activist citizenship and radical democratic experiments display certain aesthetics of emancipation. © 2020 Third Text.