From Dialogical Aesthetics in Eastern European Art to ‘Falling in Love’ with the Other(s)

Abstract

This article responses to European rise of nationalism by adapting Jacques Derrida’s hospitality concept to analyse contemporary art projects from former Eastern Europe. The paper will appropriate Derrida’s argument about the mutual acceptance of the host and the guest and argue that every relationship is about the possibility to be changed by the other, by considering the Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat’s take on Alain Badiou’s ‘In Praise of Love’ theory. By analysing András Cséfalvay’s Compsognation - a dinosaur’s view on the nation state(2013), Ztohoven’s Citizen K (2009-2010), Hybrid Workspace’s Deep Europe Visa Department (1997) and Kateřina Šedá’s From Morning till Night (2011); the article will ask whether these art projects can open up a discussion about the uncomfortable encounter with ‘the other’? It will argue they cannot change hospitality or nationality issues, but they can invite us to dialogue through which we can negotiate the gap between self and other.