Here’s a thought-provoking article from Eurozine on the legacy and meaning of Nietzsche as it relates to contemporary society. Exploring his often offensive attitude towards morality and politics, his attacks on monotheistic religions and nationalism, his project of the revaluation of all values, and his critique of egalitarianism in relation to liberal democracy; six philosophers answer questions in relation to his views. Excessively sensitive, anti-liberal and irrelevant, or radical, prescient and misunderstood? Nietzsche still divides opinion.

Paul Patton: Some of his remarks about women are among the most offensive of Nietzsche’s writings. I take these to be indications of the extent to which he was a man of his time who could not see beyond the existing cultural forms of the sexual division of humankind. Like the vast majority of nineteenth century European men, Nietzsche could not divorce female affect, intelligence and corporeal capacities from a supposed “essential’ relation to child-bearing. His views on women are representative of his attitude toward morality and politics in the sense that they are in tension with possibilities otherwise opened up by his historical conception of human nature. For example, at times he recognizes that supposedly natural qualities of women or men are really products of particular social arrangements. We can conclude from this, even if he could not, that these qualities are not natural but open to change. In this domain as in other of his social and political views, he was not able to foresee some of the ways in which the very dynamics of human cultural evolution that he identified could lead us into a very different future.

Here for the article.

The above picture is by San Francisco photographer Naseema Khan. Inserted into fruit are fragments of Nietzsche’s “Beyond Good and Evil”, a text that challenges the concepts of meaning and reason.

Art, politics, and the media intersect in contemporary artist Leon Golub’s nightmarish images of war, torture, death squads and mercenaries. Recently, Kartemquin Films has released their Golub/Spero DVD. Golub: Late Works are the Catastrophes follows the creation of one of the artist’s monumental canvases, “White Squad X”, detailing his complex and unorthodox techniques. Scenes of Golub at work are interwoven with archival footage, interviews with museum-goers and TV news as the film challenges us to question our connection to violence and to reassess the relationship between art and society. Golub/Spero also captures an historic artistic journey shared by Golub and prominent feminist and anti-war artist Nancy Spero, his wife and studio partner for over 50 years. Included are two films by Irene Sosa on the work of Spero, as well as an extensive gallery of their artistic works, film out-takes, and more.

The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema offers an introduction to exciting ideas about fantasy, reality and desire. It’s the famous and charismatic Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek discussing cinematic form. With his well-known sense of provocative humor, he analyzes in this fragment the famous and shocking cupboard scene from David Lynch’s classic Blue Velvet. He confronts us with our own ideas about subjectivity and sexuality, while defying traditional psychoanalysis and feminist theory. Furthermore, Žižek illustrates the immediacy with which film can communicate complex ideas:

“My big obsession is to make things clear. I can really explain a line of thought if I can somehow illustrate it in a scene from a film. The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema is really about what psychoanalysis can tell us about cinema.”
(Slavoj Žižek)

Belgian philosopher Dieter Lesage’s latest publication is a remarkable small book about German artist Ina Wudtke. Besides being about Ina Wudtke, it is also a close reading of Nicolas Bourriaud’s Postproduction. In this book, the acclaimed French curator relates the operations DJ’s apply to music to contemporary art. Sounds exciting? Well, after reading A Portrait… it’s quite hard to consider this hip, but empty, DJ rhetoric seriously. It’s definitely fun to read how Lesage systematically deconstructs Bourriaud’s ‘revolutionary’ ideas.

A new kid on the independent publishing block, make/shift promises a close-up look at feminist culture and activism with critical analysis, visual and text art and regular columns by contributors, including Nomy Lamm and Mattilda aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore. Though the magazine is based in California, they’re aiming for a transnational perspective to articulate what they call “feminisms in motion”. They’ve already sold out the first print run - which hopefully means there will be many more issues to come!

Order the first issue or get a one year subscription here.

Check out the call for submissions

Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film, Video, and Television

An exciting cinematic phenomenon is emerging on the African continent: Women from every region of African are using the diverse mediums of film, video and television, in the various formats of 16 and 35mm, Beta, Hi-8 and 3/4 video to produce feature, short, documentary and animation films, which are shown in movie houses, on television, at film festivals and cine-clubs. While they come to cinema from different paths, African women in film, for different reason and at different moments, share a common goal: to bring images to the screen. For more about Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film, Video, and Television, click here.

The 2007 Visions in Feminism Conference is this Saturday, April 28. As observed by keynote speaker Elaine Brown, the current political climate hasn’t been this ripe for wide-spread activism since the ’60’s. Building community, an essential ingredient in the process to bring about positive social change, is this years’ Conference theme. Registration is cheap and the day’s workshops and panel discussions are sure to inspire. The Conference begins at 9am at American University.

Click here for additional info about the Conference. Click here and here for more about former Black Panther Party leader and keynote speaker, Elaine Brown.

In 1973, the same year the Supreme Court decided their landmark ruling in Roe V. Wade, Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) was founded. Since then, they have consistantly provided a forum for dissent against the Catholic Church’s formal stance regarding contraception and female autonomy (or lackthereof).
Among their campaigns and contributions in support of contraception and choice, CFFC publishes a quarterly journal of progressive Catholic inquiry and thought called Conscience. Free sample issues are available through their website.

CFFC believes in and works toward the following principles:

• The right of individuals and couples to decide on when, whether and how they will form families;
• Women’s and men’s moral agency, which requires access to the full range of contraceptive choices, safe and legal abortion, pre- and post-natal care and adoption;
• Respect for and recognition of gay, lesbian, bi and
  transgendered persons and relationships with all legal rights;
• Support and respect, including treatment, prevention and especially access to condoms, for people living with HIV/AIDS and those at risk;
• Freedom from all forms of intimate violence, including sexual abuse in the family, relationships and the church;
• Social and economic justice that ensures that no one is denied sexual or reproductive health services because they cannot afford them;
• Equality for and non-discrimination against women in government, civil society and all faith groups;
• Scientific and public policies that are determined by evidence-based research, democratic structures and the common good;
• The right of faith groups to participate in public policy formation and the responsibility of legislators to legislate without privileging sectarian religious beliefs.

Click here to support Catholics for a Free Choice and their mission to further thoughtful and coherent policies about abortion and the right to Choose.

Thanks to the folks at McSweeney’s, and the 3rd installment of Wolphin - their quarterly DVD offering - I’ve been introduced to one of the coolest, toughest girls on the planet. In A Stranger in her Own City (which stands out as a true jewel among the compilation’s lesser offerings), director Khadija Al-Salami follows 13-year-old Nejmia around the streets of their native Sana’a, Yemen. This free-thinking, defiant young girl refuses to wear the veil or scarf required of girls her age. She walks the streets by day or night, riding a bicycle and a scooter and playing soccer with the boys. When frequently confronted, scolded and insulted for not wearing the veil, she doesn’t give an inch but rather rails eloquently against her critics for their own laziness and hypocrisy: “[A girl] can do many bad things behind the veil. Leave me alone.” (more…)

The CEPA Gallery in Buffalo presents Deviant Bodies 2.0, an exhibition of visual arts exploring Transgender, Genderqueer and Gender Variant perspectives. The exhibition includes photography, video and installation work by thirteen artists including Del LaGrace Volcano, Francesca Galliani and Sandy Stone. For more on the exhibition check out the CEPA website, or read a review from ArtVOice, Buffalo’s alternative paper.

A little closer to home, the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore presents Re:location. The exhibition presents work done by Super Pride Studio, a collaboration between The Men’s Center in East Baltimore and students from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Projects presented in the exhibition include the East Baltimore Bike Library and the Madeira Project, a design to turn two vacant lots into a community center and garden. The most recent project included in the exhibition is SUPER LOT, a design to turn the parking lot at the Men’s Center into a hub for community activities. SUPER LOT was created with help from MunicipalWORKSHOP, a laboratory dedicated to facilitating public art projects through collaborations with towns, municipalities and community groups.