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For Artforum’s March 2007 issue, artists John Kelsey and Fulvia Carnevale interviewed philosopher Jacques Rancière, tracking the thinker’s development from early research on nineteenth century workers’ struggles to a late-career fixation on contemporary art. The sprawling conversation formed the core of a cluster of essays dedicated to Rancière, including texts from artists and critics such as Kristin Ross, Paul Chan, Liam Gillick, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Bettina Funcke detailing the myriad ways the Frenchman informed the art world’s conceptions of emancipation, equality, and aesthetics in the early twenty-first century.
Rancière’s responses work to expand rather than limn the “precinct of art,” emphasizing the necessity of working in unbounded interdisciplinary roles to best explore the conditions of a world marked by seemingly infinite access to media and diminishing interest in art and literature. These concerns of attention and interest are further complicated by continual increases in financial inequality, which have produced a world “divided between those who can and those who cannot afford the luxury of playing with words and images.” To best “emancipate” themselves under such circumstances, Rancière suggests that artists and writers constantly remind themselves that “there are always several spaces in a space, several ways of occupying it, and each time the trick is knowing what sort of capacities one is setting in motion, what sort of world one is constructing.” Whether in discussions of the art market, the aesthetic and political potential of subculture, or the impact of geopolitical conflict on art, Rancière maintains the importance of subverting “consensus,” or the “inscription within given roles, possibilities, and competences.” Drawing from nearly three centuries of research in labor relations and the arts, Rancière asserts that space and time for thinking and creating freely is always worth fighting for, and always available to those who seize it for themselves.
Read “Art of the Possible” from the March 2007 issue of Artforum.
And explore more essays on Jacques Rancière in the March 2007 issue of Artforum. . .
Regime Change: Jacques Rancière and Contemporary Art
Facts Only
* John Kelsey and Fulvia Carnevale interviewed Jacques Rancière in Artforum's March 2007 issue.
* The interview tracked Rancière's development from research on nineteenth-century workers’ struggles to a focus on contemporary art.
* The conversation informed essays by artists and critics including Kristin Ross, Paul Chan, Liam Gillick, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Bettina Funcke.
* Rancière’s responses expanded the "precinct of art" by emphasizing interdisciplinary roles.
* Rancière discussed concerns regarding attention, interest, financial inequality, and access to media.
* Rancière suggests that individuals must know the capacities they set in motion when constructing a world.
* Rancière maintained the importance of subverting "consensus" or the "inscription within given roles, possibilities, and competences."
* Rancière asserted that space and time for free thinking are worth fighting for and are available to those who seize them.
Executive Summary
Artists John Kelsey and Fulvia Carnevale interviewed philosopher Jacques Rancière in the March 2007 issue of Artforum. The conversation tracked Rancière's development from early research on nineteenth-century workers' struggles to his later focus on contemporary art. The resulting dialogue formed the basis for essays by artists and critics, including Kristin Ross, Paul Chan, Liam Gillick, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Bettina Funcke. These texts detailed how Rancière informed the art world's views on emancipation, equality, and aesthetics in the twenty-first century.
Rancière’s philosophy emphasizes expanding the "precinct of art" by advocating for interdisciplinary roles to explore conditions shaped by media access and financial inequality. He suggests that individuals can enact change by recognizing multiple ways to occupy spaces and understanding the capacities they are setting in motion. Rancière maintains that subverting consensus, which involves inscription within given roles, possibilities, and competences, is crucial when addressing issues like the art market, subculture, or geopolitical conflict. Ultimately, he asserts that the space and time for free thinking and creation must be fought for.
Full Take
The text positions Rancière’s philosophical engagement as a method for critiquing contemporary structures of access and distribution. The focus on "precinct" and the necessity of interdisciplinary roles suggests a critique of established, bounded categories—whether in art, economics, or politics—that dictate what counts as legitimate experience or value. The juxtaposition of historical labor relations with twenty-first-century concerns regarding media access and financial division suggests an underlying pattern where perceived boundaries (like artistic consensus or economic opportunity) are actively maintained through the management of attention and assigned roles.
The core implication is that emancipation requires shifting recognition from what is *given* (the established "consensus") to understanding the multiplicity of ways space can be occupied and capacities can be mobilized. The assertion that space and time for creation are available only through struggle speaks to a persistent tension between perceived abundance and actual material conditions, suggesting that true agency lies in recognizing the distributed nature of power and possibility rather than adhering to fixed definitions of aesthetic or economic limits.
What assumptions about the nature of "emancipation" are embedded in the framing of space and time as something to be seized? What historical patterns of exclusion are being implicitly invoked when discussing consensus versus multiplicity? How does the focus on undermining established roles relate to current debates surrounding digital access and artistic valuation?
Sentinel — Human
The text functions as an analytical introduction to the work of Jacques Rancière, synthesizing context from an interview and grounding philosophical concepts in contemporary social and artistic concerns.