ANTAGONISM

"Antagonism as a witness of the impossibility of a final structure, is the 'experience' of the limit of the social" (Laclau, E. and Mouffe, C. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, 2001)

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Here is Where We Meet  is a good example of co-operation in practice. It highlights the unknown performative identities at work when people automatically fall into presenting a semblance of togetherness. A question that I ask myself regarding the work, however, is whether it is actually relational? I want to get beneath the surface of co-operation and differentiate between what could be deemed surface interaction and what could be more complex (more conflictive) co-operation.

 

“a democratic society is one in which relations of conflict are sustained, not erased. Without antagonism there is only the imposed consensus of authoritarian order—a total suppression

of debate and discussion, which is inimical to democracy”

(Bishop, C. Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, 2004)

 

Here Is Where We Meet in an earnest exploration of species identity does come very close to falsifying a community and what Bishop describes as “togetherness”, i.e inflicting the model of a “harmonious community” on a whole group.

 

It was therefore a question of attempting to instigate a more disruptive and fragmented approach in the work going forward. Say Hi From Me did this with a fragmented phone conversation between three people. What Are Other People Like... would take it one step further by emphasising the urge to falsify togetherness and the complexities involved in being truly together due to the limits of the social encounter.