Things With Words ⋅ Streit ⋅ Reanimation ⋅ Copycat ⋅ MASTERCAT2 ⋅ Master Cat ⋅ in Liebe zu ... ⋅  radical chic ⋅ nostalgie de la boue (with Israel Aten) ⋅ Royal Space Force (with Niklas Taleb) ⋅ Lets Play Modernism ⋅ EZB ⋅ IP (enhanced) ⋅ Spieltrieb ⋅ Neue Stadt (with Frederike Wetzels) ⋅ Leuchten ⋅ the Conversation (with Max Schmoetzer) ⋅ wohnen ⋅ mittwochs

In his 1970 essay “Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny’s”, Tom Wolfe describes a fundraiser for the Black Panther Party in a luxurious apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The guests are members of New York’s high society and of the Black Panthers. They talk about the political struggle and drink champagne. The term “radical chic”, coined in this essay, describes the adoption of radical political positions as a marker of identity. Wolfe describes a dialectical state of mind: on the one hand a sincere interest in political change, on the other an equally sincere interest in maintaining an Upper East Side lifestyle.

“radical chic” ties in with this dialectic and tries to re-evaluate and contextualize the remnants of left-wing radicalism. It examines the wish to change the world without changing it.

installation views from radical chic, Galerie Kiki Maier-Hahn, Düsseldorf
1080p/24, 3:08 min, 2016