Between the singular and the plural: notes on art, autonomy and politics

Abstract

This article brings together a set of notes that seek to debate the relationship between art and politics taking the ambivalence of the notion of autonomy as a point of departure (I). This ambivalence is due the fact that autonomy refers to art either in the singular or in the plural. So these notes cover various issues including the difference and complementarity between aesthetic and art (II); the relationship between artistic practice, aesthetic experience and art criticism (III); the interaction of the arts in the light of the postmodern debate (IV); the diversity of interartistic practices (V). When all is said and done, the article suggests that the relationship between the arts is both a condition and a stimulus of the politics of the arts, the singularity of their common purpose notwithstanding (VI).