Whiteness as Property

Curated by Ana Hoffner ex-Prvulovic*
After the text of the same name by Cheryl I. Harris

The exhibition project Whiteness as Property attempts to question property relations that are saturated with racism from an economic, materialist perspective. It shows instruments for addressing possessive individualism and investigates whether the art field can serve as a source of alternative models of possessive subject/object relationships that are critical of racism.

The focus of the exhibition is on aesthetic practices developed in relation to property and possession. It shows artistic positions which challenge the taken-for-granted nature of the historical and contemporary ownership of always already racialized subjects and objects through specific examinations of things and materials. On the one hand, artistic practice has an investigative function through its examination of racialized property relations; on the other hand, techniques developed in the exhibition demonstrate how subjects lose their sovereignty through the handling of objects, how they acquire a life of their own and cannot be transformed into things. Crucial to these works is that they focus on the affective implications of possession, without romanticizing the lack of it. Rather, artistic practice acts as a field of experimentation in which the multi-layered character of possession becomes visible first: we are often inevitably not in possession of ourselves and at the same time possessive of others. Nevertheless, is it possible to find an ethical dimension of property and possession? Can a form of subjectification be developed that is not based on the right to own, but is aware of the importance of collectivity for the formation of property relations and thus has the potential to combat racism from an economic direction?

In her text “Whiteness as Property,” published in 1993, legal scholar Cheryl I. Harris writes about the formation of property relations along racial categories. Racism not only dispossessed Black people, it also defined ownership itself as a right reserved for white identity. What Harris addresses in the context of the United States has a prehistory in older conceptions of the liberal subject. As the owner of itself, the liberal subject is not only involved in the production of race, it is also significantly shaped by the urge to possess. It is against the background of the so-called “possessive individualism” that today’s racist relations as well as the process of reification must be thought of.  For the making of objects cannot be detached from racialized questions of ownership – things only become what they are through the possibility of their capitalist appropriation and their circulation as a commodity.

Participating artists
Angela Anderson, Peggy Buth, Tania Candiani, Danica Dakić, Anna Daučíková, Fokus Grupa, Robert Gabris, Lungiswa Gqunta, Laure M. Hiendl, Hristina Ivanoska, Karrabing Film Collective, Stephanie Misa, Elaine Mitchener, Elisabeth A. Povinelli, Ines Schaber, Widows of Marikana

Artistic Research Conference
March 25–26, 2022
The conference accompanying the exhibition is dedicated to the specific knowledge of the participating artists. The event provides an opportunity for an in-depth exploration of possessive individualism and racialized property relations from the perspective of aesthetic production. For two consecutive days, the artists will present and discuss their practices with a broad audience.

Programme
–Panel discussions with the artists of the exhibition
–Screening of The Mermaids, or Aiden in Wonderland (2018) by the Karrabing Film Collective
–Performance by Elaine Mitchener: Songs for Captured Voices (2021), musical theatre by Laure M. Hiendl, Göksu Kunak, Thea Reifler, and Philipp Bergmann.

In cooperation with Universität Mozarteum Salzburg.