The Aesthetics of Populism.Political struggle and the aesthetic experience in Poland post 1989

The aesthetic dimension of politics has usually been neglected or marginalized. However, the recent rise of populist movements places the question of the relationship between aesthetics and politics at the center of the cultural studies and political science discourses. Populism is usually connected with building strong identities, and it is hardly imaginable that the collective identities could be constructed without an extensive usage of aesthetics tools.

Main goals of the project include:

1. To reconstruct the aesthetic strategies of populist movements in their various dimensions, from artificially staged public meetings, performances, and works of art to the aesthetics of everyday life. This will enable Professor Koczanowicz to reveal the specificity of populist political aesthetics and to gain insight into one of the driving forces of populist movements.
2. To show the role of aesthetics in democratic society, that is to define to what extent democracy has to rely on a specific aesthetic activity, which facilitates the core of every democratic society, i.e. the dialogue and open communication between people and social groups.
3. To show that the political struggle between populism and liberal democracy can be viewed as a struggle between two hostile aesthetics.
4. Finally, to present a general theory of political aesthetics, which will systemize the ways of using aesthetic initiatives in politics and show their place in democracy.