Ivana Rumanová: Hľadanie spoločnej reči v hluku

What would resistance movements in Slovakia look like if their goal was not only to defend particular interests, but also to fight together for justice and equality? What would change in their agenda and language if they defined themselves not only in opposition to the neo-authoritarian illiberal practices of the state, but also in opposition to growing social and economic inequalities? Which voices, currently discredited as “noise,” would have to be granted political legitimacy in such movements?

The current loss of any possibility of meaningful dialogue with government representatives, accompanied by contempt for professional expertise, generates attempts to define politics in the opposite sense: as the work of expert groups operating under pressure in a “state of emergency” regime. In a sense, this is understandable, albeit a rather knee-jerk reaction, which may ultimately reproduce the former status quo and social power hierarchies. It is therefore in direct contradiction to “politics” as understood by Jacques Rancière or Pierre Bourdieu.

In what way can their visions of politics be inspiring in the context of the current multiple crises or as a way out of the “tragedy of cultural capital without economic capital”? This will be explored in a lecture by Ivana Rumanová and a subsequent discussion with Bohdan Smieško.
The lecture is an accompanying event to the intergenerational group exhibition Smoke and Mirrors, currently on display at the Bratislava City Gallery.

“Politics begins at the moment when the natural order of dominance and distribution of power among parts of society is disrupted by the emergence of a surplus part, the demos (…). Equality, which is a non-political condition of politics, is realized only through the play of this contested part, which establishes the political community as a community of dispute.”
Rancière, Jacques. La Mésentente. Politique et philosophie. (orig. Paris: Galilée, 1995).

Ivana Rumanová is a cultural critic, researcher, and anthropologist. She studied cultural anthropology at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague and cultural projects in public space at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris. Her practice straddles the boundary between social sciences and contemporary art, and she maintains a sincere interest in and deep skepticism toward both fields. She has worked as a curator at the New Synagogue in Žilina and was a member of the editorial board of the magazines Kapitál and 3/4. In the past, she organized independent curatorial exhibitions, but now she is more focused on exploring collective practices and research-based projects. In 2023, she received the Věra Jirousová Award for her contribution to art criticism. She was a member of the Open Culture platform and a member of the Cultural Strike committee. She is the chairwoman of the Cultural Departments and a researcher at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology.