Potentiality and Uprisings: Georges Didi-Huberman in Dialogue with Giorgio Agamben and Antonio Negri

Abstract

ABSTRACT In his recent work, Georges Didi-Huberman has engaged in a critical dialogue with the theories of Giorgio Agamben and Antonio Negri about the potentiality of people to rise up against oppression. In his text ‘Puissance de ne pas, ou la politique du désoeuvrement’, Didi-Huberman critiques the overly negative manner in which Agamben has theorised the potentiality for resistance. He argues that the desire to resist oppression is universal and can always flare up, which was the point of departure for the exhibition Soulèvements, curated by Didi-Huberman. In a text written for the exhibition catalogue, Negri concurs with Didi-Huberman’s assertion that people have an indestructible potentiality to rise up against oppression, but he also emphasises the need to develop a constituent process. The latter can be heard as a critique of Didi-Huberman’s approach to uprisings, which remains focused on the desire to revolt as a universally human potentiality.