“Schwung”; Critical Curating and Aesthetic Management for Art, Business and Politics
Aesthetic Value, energetically generated out of the intensive pendulum Schwung playfully connecting the poles of form and matter, is the powerhouse of Kantian-Schillerian political economy. The dynamics of public movements as well as private enterprises can be traced back to aesthetic processes provoked by entrepreneurial artists and shared sensible artwork. In such traditions of European aesthetic philosophy, artist Joseph Beuys redefined art as "social sculpture", curator Nicolas Bourriaud minted the term "relational aesthetics" and philosopher Jacques Rancière understood social empowerment as the aesthetic "sharing of the sensible".
The "Schwung"-series offers concrete cases showing entrepreneurial aesthetic processes supported and nurtured by curating. When "management" and "entrepreneurship" are reinterpreted as "curating", criticism inevitably enters the realm of business and politics. "Curating" critically links aesthetics to ethics, which is why contemporary artists such as Michelangelo Pistoletto advocates "Socially Responsible Art", Marina Abramović performs "Unfinished Business" and Olafur Eliasson does art as "Community Building". Can Schwung reconnect business and politics to real and material society? Joseph Beuys once provokingly stated "Art is Capital"; the Schwung series explores contemporary concrete experiences where Human Capital is playfully liberated through "critical curating" and "aesthetic management".
Pierre Guillet de Monthoux is Professor of Philosophy and Management at Copenhagen Business School. He is the Director of the Stockholm School of Economics’ Art Initiative, and also directs art initiatives introducing art and curating at Copenhagen Business School. As a member of the European Cultural Parliament, he is engaged in aesthetic political practices and has recently initiated a faculty group for integrating Humanities and Arts in top European CEMS business school education. As a professor affiliated to Uppsala University he is involved in curriculum development for art-based management education. His research at Copenhagen Business School, Stockholm School of Economics and Uppsala University focuses on making aesthetic philosophy and contemporary art bridge business and society by rethinking business education as critical curating. Through the European Center for Art and Management, he is currently involved in curating-teaching in Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium.
