"Aesth eticization of politics" and "Politicization of art" in the USSR: Walter Benjamin and the productivist movement (1926-1936)

Abstract

This article analyzes the historical and conceptual links established between Walter Benjamin and the Soviet productivist movement, focusing on the relation between the notion of "politicization of art" - defended by Benjamin as a device to combat fascism in the essay "The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction" of 1936 -, and the notion of "factography", developed by the Soviet productivist Sergei Tretiakov from 1927 onwards. It is argued in this text that the categories of "aestheticization of politics" and of "politicization of art" had their first conceptual development in Benjamin's thinking from his trip to the USSR (1926-1927) and from his contact with the productivist thought.