When Peter Weiss wrote “The Aesthetics of Resistance”, he was looking back into the 1930s/’40s, at a Berlin of the antifascist underground, at the Spanish Civil War, and at a decade of European exile. It was a consideration of the 20th century – a novel combining art theory and worldview against the backdrop of the historical conflict between fascism and communism. Weiss portrays an emancipation process that is also highly central for questions of offering resistance today: the possibility of political participation by individuals.
Accompanying the festival "The Aesthetics of Resistance – Peter Weiss 100", a new edition of the HAU publication series features texts by Guillermo Calderón, Oliver Frljić, Marco Layera and Rabih Mroué, a conversation between Nicoleta Esinencu and Aenne Quiñones, an introductory text by Aenne Quiñones, a speech by Peter Weiss, texts by Hans-Thies Lehmann and Jenny Willner, and a statement by Bini Adamczak, co-curator of the festival.
