Art and Culture
Yanis and Slavoj in London, celebrating Zizek at 75! – How to Academy
, 15/11/2024
On 15th November, I interviewed Slavoj Zizek, live on stage, on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Judge for yourself whether we had fun (and maybe had something of interest to say…) To watch the rest click below: Part 2 – Trump is a fetish Part 3 “Israel Needed War” Part 4 Optimism or […]
What to do about the Parthenon Marbles – interviewed by Michael Portillo
, 25/04/2023
Following my article in Unherd about the Parthenon Marbles, Michael Portillo interviewed me on the subject for GB News.
Europe’s latest illiberal democracy: Greece! – New Statesman
, 24/03/2023
“Like lambs to the slaughter” was how an elderly neighbour described the deaths of youngsters travelling on Intercity 62 which, on the night of 28 February, crashed head-on with a freight train in Greece killing 57 people. Many of the dead were students returning after a long weekend from Athens to their universities in Thessaloniki. […]
On the shameful deal Osborne-Mitsotakis are hammering out over the Parthenon antiquities – UNHERD
, 24/03/2023
From the very beginning, Elgin’s removal of the Parthenon’s statues and friezes caused something of a discursive British civil war. On one side were humanists, like Lord Byron; on the other were Empire apologists, who defend Elgin’s actions and support the British Museum’s inalienable property rights to the artefacts it, eventually, purchased from him. Over […]
mέta – DiEM25’s & MeRA25’s Centre for Postcapitalist Civilisation premiers tonight, 13th May, at 19.00CET
, 12/05/2021
Imagine the world anew, together. Thursday 13 May 2021, at 19.00CET (17.00GMT, 20.00 Athens time), streaming at mέta’s YouTube channel and at facebook.com/meta.cpc. Through a sequence of intensifying crises, capitalism has already morphed into a dystopian postmodern, hi-tech version of feudalism. Postcapitalism is, thus, already here. Through art and research, argument and poetry, mέta, the […]
Everything Must Change! DiEM-TV’s lockdown interviews now available as a book
, 05/04/2021
As the pandemic placed capitalism in suspended animation, dividing us between the privileged who could afford to quarantine ourselves and those who risked life and limb keeping the world’s wheels turning, DiEM-TV went into action. Srecko Horvat and I began a series of livestreamed discussions with one aim in mind: to keep alive the hope […]
Ο Πολιτισμός στον Καιρό της Χρεοδουλοπαροικίας
, 19/07/2020
Η παρασιτική ολιγαρχία δείχνει το ασχημότερο πρόσωπό της όταν ασχολείται με τον Πολιτισμό Την 16η Ιουλίου του 2020, η κυβέρνηση της Νέας Δημοκρατίας έφερε στη Βουλή νομοσχέδιο για την μετατροπή του ΑΚΡΟΠΟΛ σε κέντρο Τέχνης και Δημιουργίας. Μια προσεκτική ανάγνωσή του καταδεικνύει την χυδαιότητα με την οποία οι πολιτικοί εντεταλμένοι της παρασιτικής ολιγαρχίας αντιμετωπίζουν […]
Utopian science fictions legitimising our current dystopia – 2019 Taylor Lecture, Oxford University
, 19/02/2019
The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford University, kindly invited me to deliver the 2019 Taylor Lecture on 12th February 2019. I chose the topic of Realistic Utopias versus Dystopic Realities – my aim being to highlight the manner in which really-existing capitalism is marketed as a utopian science fiction that has nothing to do with… really-existing capitalism. Behind this elegant utopian […]
DiEM Voice presents HERE & NOW: A CREATIVE VISION OF EUROPE, with Brian Eno, Srećko Horvat, Danae Stratou, Bobby Gillespie, Rosemary Bechler & Yanis Varoufakis. Wednesday 10th October 2018 (7pm), Platform Theatre, Central Saint Martins, London
, 04/10/2018
A culture war is underway in Europe – not between the ‘anywheres’ and the ‘nowheres’, but between those who use culture to divide – by class, by race, by nation – and those who use it to connect and include. This war is not based in Parliament – but on the street, in our homes, […]
To documenta 14: This is how democrats deal with controversy – not by bringing out the censors!
, 24/08/2017
The news that “documenta 14 Cancels ‘Auschwitz on the Beach’ Performance Amid Intense Criticism” should worry us all. Censorship is the coward’s way out of controversy. Dialogue, fierce disagreement and, hopefully eventual synthesis, is the hard road that democrats dare to tread. Back in early July Franco Bifo Berardi wrote an open letter, addressed to myself and […]
On Documenta 14, Athens – in conversation with iLiana Fokianaki, Art Agenda
, 12/06/2017
“We Come Bearing Gifts”—iLiana Fokianaki and Yanis Varoufakis on Documenta 14 Athens Created in 1955 by artist and curator Arnold Bode, Documenta sought to advance the cultural reconstruction of Germany within the postwar European order. Reoccurring every five years, it has since unfolded into a periodic forum for contemporary art. When Adam Szymczyk was appointed artistic director […]
Poetry in prose? Letter in the FT
, 04/09/2016
AUGUST 20, 2016 - From Vijay Kumar. Sir, One often hears that people on the left of the political spectrum tend to be more intelligent, more articulate, better read and generally more fun to be with. Sir, One often hears that people on the left of the political spectrum tend to be more intelligent, more [...]The FT’s summer Q&A
, 16/08/2016
The FT’s silly season Q&A edition had some questions for several of us. Here are my answers: How are you spending the summer?
"Artists should be feared by the powerful" – complete pdf transcript of my Keynote at the Moscow Biennale, October 2015
, 20/07/2016
The complete pdf of the Keynote with which I closed the 6th Moscow Biennale on 1st October 2015 is now available:. Click here (And for an audio file, click here)
Artists should be feared by the powerful – Keynote closing the 6th Moscow Biennale, 1st October 2015 (audio)
, 04/10/2015
Click above for an audio of my Moscow talk – which RT-tv was broadcasting live until I began to criticise the Putin government…
Of Loss and Retrieval – latest and last article in WdW Review
, 27/01/2015
Photo of an unknown boy, which we can imagine to have been Kostas, who went missing in 1992 during the evacuation of ethnic Greek refugees from Smyrna. Image courtesy of Red Cross Archive, Greece. This is my eighth and, for the time being, final article for Witte de With Review (an initiative of Rotterdam-based Witte de With Center for Contemporary […]
MODERN MONEY: AESTHETICS AFTER THE GOLD STANDARD (video), UC Berkeley, 7th Nov. 2014
, 18/11/2014
Click the image above to watch a 60′ keynote on Money, and its Aesthetics, after the Gold Standard, following by a presentation by Danae Stratou of her remarkable installation ‘It’s Time to Open the Black Boxes’ – click here for a full description (and pictures and video) of that work.
MODERN MONEY: AESTHETICS AFTER THE GOLD STANDARD, UC Berkeley, Friday 7th November 2014
, 04/11/2014
An Academic Conference, sponsored by the Department of History of Art, University of California, Berkeley, November 6–7, 2014 Featured Speaker: Yanis Varoufakis Featured Artist: Danae Stratou Contact sferguson at usf.edu and jordanrose at berkeley.edu for more information. (The image is Andy Warhol’s 200 One Dollar Bills, 1962)
Sleepless in Europe – in Huffington Post
, 10/05/2014
Some weeks ago I heard Arianna Huffington deliver a talk, in Austin, on sleep deprivation and the terrible decisions that it leads to. This made me recall that all the awful decisions of our European leaders (and there were so many of them) were reached at around 4.00am. I mentioned that to Arianna and she […]
Easter wishes to all
, 20/04/2014
Who said that Easter has no significance in our cynical age, even to atheists like myself? Suffering, the sacrifice of the innocents, persecution of prophets of truth – it is all going on with a vengeance. On this note, Happy Easter to all. (The photo above was taken by Danae Stratou on the US-Mexican border […]
Reaching For Our Revolvers: How a United Europe defused its culture and divided its people
, 31/03/2014
This is an article that appeared in Brooklyn Rail, a NYC-based art magazine. My brief was to write a piece on the effects of European unification on European culture. Click here for the BR website version. Or…