DOES ART DEFY THE PRINCIPLE OF REASON? Reflections on art and politics from the perspective of Herbert Marcuse

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze and discuss paradigms of political art from Herbert Marcuse, especially through the concepts of “alienation of art” and “repressive desublimation”. In this analysis, we observe the meanings given to art, its revolutionary or reified dimension in view of the recent context of censorship and persecution of the arts with the rise of the extreme right in Brazil. The approach to critical theory is initially established considering the criticism of the notion of progress and instrumental reason made by Adorno and Horkheimer in the book Dialectic of Enlightenment, in order to identify convergences about the phenomenon of fascistization of political thought and the revolutionary potential of art in different historical contexts. In dialogue with contemporary authors such as the art critic Hal Foster, the writer Walidah Imarisha, and the performance - installation Vote nu by Natacha Albuquerque, the article points out ways to think about the emancipatory dimensions of art in contemporary times.