So what is the poetics of politics?
Greece. Athens a great opportunity has been created for us students from KuVa we are in Athens in a course with an intercultural collaborative program that has been created between KuVa and Nikos Doulos and his associates/contacts in Athens.
I am writing this consideration on politics and the importance and nature of opinion making and validity within the field of art and politics, due to a meeting we had with the political art group “Depression era”.
We were meeting at a café in the area of Psvri behind the Omonia square. This area is the arabic -chinese immigrant neighborhood, with it’s own ethnic markets and interesting object-shops. This area is yet-not-gentrified- and the cafe we went to, stuck out as a camel in a Wolfpack.
The group we were set out to meet, is an artistic political group by the name “Depression Era”. They meet every week and discuss the crisis and it’s outcome and translate this into mainly photographic artworks and practices.
Already when trying to define the nature or purpose of the group I will go short of words sligth lost in translation when trying to discuss what is art/political production/purpose.
The discussion became for me a slight blur of quotes and statements, so many words Juxtapositioning between semiotics and meaning.
English is a poor language for describing, or trying to explain something that lies close to our nature or heart.
We met with three people from the group, and the first issue of discussion was:
Can you be part of a community (like “The Depression Era”) if you are also part of a political party (a prominent photographer had left the group due to another members joining SYRIZA).
For the people from “The Depression Era” these two activities are not compatible, whereas from the students (read. Our) point of view these two things should not be excluding each other - ( or as a fact If you cannot be a part of a political party, or in other way show your political point of view can you then make political art?)
For Depression era it was maybe more the question of: “Can we create an alternative political voice within a group, if people in some form are tied to a political program that has already been defined?” The conversation became heated and circulated around the subjects of history and the position of photography in Greece (which is beyond of our field of knowledge).
The community structure in KuVa, and maybe more in general amongst the student body of the art school, and dare I say students in general in Finland, has a very different mindset or preconditions. The several groups or unions which are a big part of society, is run based on the specific theme in question rather than the individual character of the members.
The role of politics in our society and whether politics is part of everyday life and culture is what should be also taken in consideration.It can be described as the sphere between discussing politics as the political practice versus actively practicing opinions through everyday actions. Politics is for me not as much the matter of discussing it, but the things we do.
(From my grandparents I was taught that being political, is when you pick up your trash, when you recycle, when you do an active initiative to change or maintain your society. Politics is not the piece of paper you put into a voting box, it is the way you talk to your neighbour, it is the way you make everybody your neighbor. Value is not the piece of paper called money. It is the value and the care with which you provide the service or the commodity in subject of exchange.) 
From the different meetings we have had these two days, this is what I felt was the fundamental difference. On thursday we heard and saw the activists from Greenpark, who through activism, cultural squatting and artistic engagement change the lives of the communities within their geopolitical sphere. They produce result and change, with volunteer activistic work outside of their personal careers or practices. Artist activism is something of an utopian art form but nevertheless existing.
When the collectives focus more on the individuals of the group or a profile / identity which is being defined through it’s members and their personal beliefs, I think the group loses its purpose or active force.
In the evening after this interesting and slightly confusing meeting, I was thinking about “what is political art and how does it sound or look (smell or feel)?” What is the aesthetics of politics and how does this affect us?
We went to see the Turkey of the talk : a political performance commenting on the hot potato of politics at the moment (høhø): Donald Trump. The performance was a comment on Trump. Two artist were at each end of the space producing interesting soundscapes while a old 35 mm camera was projecting on the wall. On the wall was A0 poster with the faces of famous politicians and cultural figures such as Kim Kardashian(?) and Milo Yiannopoulos. During the performance a woman read quotes from the book “ Make America great again”, while tearing out the pages .An example: “let me tell you something, when I want to learn something, I make sure that I learn it” , this ridiculous or rather abstract nature of Trumps statement, has lead the group to create also funny and absurd anagrams of “Make America great again” - ex: “ I am a Karate American egg”, which was also the name of the performance. The woman tore out the pages of the Trump book and wrapped gold painted stones in the pages and gave them to the audience. Then two of the performers started to cut out the eyes of the portraits of the political leaders and hung the eyes on the walls, or on the faces (which look absurd and amusing.) the audience were hence given a mask of the political figures from the wall, and were lead to a room with chairs and here they were seated for a photoshoot.
The performances was a travel in this absurd world of medias and contexts.
Behind one of the sound performers, a movie made by Eva Braun was screened in weird a mezcla of Trump cutouts. The performance aroused also controversy within our group. Is this political art, or is it populist sensational use of a popular topic to create coherence within a abstract mix of expression forms?
What is the importance of the political statement if the content is not serious ?
Is this art that makes the aesthetics of politics affect us on a subdominant level, by connotations and cultural triggers, we cannot as Scandinavians detect?
Time will tell maybe, after processing of memory.
