The Future of the Image.

Translated by Gregory Elliott
A leading philosopher presents a radical manifesto for the future of art and film

In The Future of the Image, Jacques Rancière develops a fascinating new concept of the image in contemporary art, showing how art and politics have always been intrinsically intertwined. Covering a range of art movements, and thinkers such as Foucault, Deleuze, Adorno, Barthes, Lyotard and Greenberg, Rancière argues that contemporary theorists of the image are suffering from religious tendencies. He suggests that there is a stark political choice in art: it can either reinforce a radical democracy, or create a new reactionary mysticism. For Rancière there is never a pure art: the aesthetic revolution will always embrace egalitarian ideals.

Jacques Rancière is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Université de Paris-VIII. His books include Hatred of Democracy and On the Shores of Politics (both from Verso), The Politics of Aesthetics, Short Voyages to the Land of the People and The Nights of Labor.