Beyond burnout culture? Artistic imaginations of care (crisis) in Barbara Raes' Zon dag kind and Els Dietvorst's Field Guide

Abstract

Recent studies of contemporary burnout culture, as I will argue, have much to gain from recent feminist critical theorisations and artistic imaginations of care (crisis). The suggestion is indeed to re-think burnout culture in relation to capitalism’s care crisis in order to bring into view the valuable perspectives offered by feminist theorizations and artistic imaginations, which have thus far been largely side-lined, or not properly been considered in the discussion.Closereading Zon dag kind by Barbara Raes and Field Guide by Els Dietvorst, I show that both works challenge conventional artistic boundaries so as to carry out experiments in sociability which help us imagine caring subjects and a sense of community, which can be seen as an important part of the answer to the self-sufficient entrepreneurial individual in our neoliberal society, in particular, to his or her total exhaustion and other related mental and affective states.

Keywords

• Care
• Vulnerability
• Burnout culture
• Capitalism's care crisis
• Women's art
• Belgium