Berlin Dada, Surrealism, Situationists, Art+Language: all had problematic
relations with either (a) actual Communist parties, or (b) mimicking the
organizational style of same or (c) Trotskyist or Maoist splinter groups.
And let's not get started on figures like Osip Brik, who went from being
a cheerleader for the Russian avant gardes to a member of the Cheka...
Its a long and complicated history -- let's not get bogged down it it,
shall we? Can we agree that the historic avant gardes made political
mistakes? They 'collaborated', and that is always problematic, in some
way.
Would it be possible to think of forms of cooperative action outside of
*either* organised political formations *or* academic/art institutions?
That strikes me as a more interesting question, and maybe where Brian
is really headed....
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