Kounosuke Kawakami Laboratory, as part of Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts, is pleased to announce the exhibition PUNK! The Revolution of Everyday Life.
May 14–28, 2021
PUNK! The Revolution of Everyday Life explores the development of punk cultural and historical references with Karl Klaus, a writer and journalist, Alfred Jarry, French playwright, DADA, Lettrism, Situationist International, King Mob, Black Mask & Up Against the Wall Mother Fucker. At the same time, we will refer to punk rockers CRASS, Riot Grrrl, and Queercore who have followed the punk trajectory since the Sex Pistols.
https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/394800/punk-the-revolution-of-everyday-life
The late anarchist and anthropologist David Graeber’s essay will develop this perspective:
Punk rock, like all good art, has been, at times, very theatrical. Words and themes like “anarchy”, “disorder”, or “chaos” have either been used for actual political aims or for the sake of playing with imagery. Of course, disorder and chaos have nothing to do with anarchism, but punk rock has been, at least tangentially, related to anarchism because the two have similar aims. Anarchy is the only sophisticated political idea that condemns all oppression. And punk has had a social conscious since its beginning. It seems to be the only genre of music that condemns all oppression. To be into punk is to be aware of alternatives. The punk movement offers the opportunity to be more informed, more aware of world affairs, and more conscious of how society is actually run than the rest of the general population. Punk rock questions the social structure, opposes economic exploitation, militarism, imperialism, and is staunchly anti-authoritarian.
State power seems solely responsible for the perception that anarchism is about chaos, disorder, and an overall antisocial society. “An” means without. “Archy” means rulers. Without rulers does not mean a society without rules. Anarchism is a highly organized way of structuring society where hierarchies are eliminated or otherwise minimized, where private property is replaced with personal property**.** The Paris Commune, Spanish Catalonia in the mid 1930’s, Madagascar in the middle 1990s, and currently, villages in Amazonia, and parts of Oceania etc. are all examples of how anarchy works… Malatesta and Durruti were revolutionary in their actions. Kropotkin and Bakunin were revolutionary in their philosophy. Since the Haymarket Riot and the Palmer Raids, the state has been murderously ruthless in its mission to disgrace and dismiss anarchism because anarchism is rooted in a world where state power does not exist and governance is relegated to decentralized micro societies, or how we lived for the majority of human history, before nation states came into existence, roughly 7,000 years ago.
Not since Eugene Debs has any major figure in western politics questioned the legitimacy of nationalism, borders, voting for rich representatives, or being ruled by elites. Little meaningful social progress since the civil rights era means that, like punk rock, the “left” wing has been pushed underground. Everything in electoral politics seems quite reactionary. No meaningful change since the late 1960s is due to complacency and effective propaganda, which punk rock rejects. Education about the nature of state power, and human liberation should be encouraged.