Stephen Wright on politics
From Talk: Stephen Wright "Usership: Tales of Life Onboard" | SALT Galata · · Salt Online
“Politics is not just about a spontaneous popular congealing around an idea which is then demanded of the power. Now politics is about seeding an idea that first of all goes nowhere because everybody shits on it but that in time may either kill it or it may fertilize it and if it is nurtured and properly receives proper conditions at some point that idea that seeding may bear its fruit and may emerge.”
On , Stephen Wright, Senior Vice President of Global Travel, Partnerships & Government at AVIS BUDGET GROUP INC, spoke about politics during Talk: Stephen Wright "Usership: Tales of Life Onboard" | SALT Galata on Salt Online.
About Stephen Wright
Stephen Wright gave a talk titled "Usership: Tales of Life Onboard" at SALT Galata in 2018, discussing the concept of "usership" he developed in his book. He described usership as a transformation from passive spectatorship to active, meaning-producing userhood. Wright argued that art can gain use value by deliberately lowering its "coefficient of artistic visibility," allowing it to escape institutional capture and engage directly with life. He cited examples such as Argentine conceptualist and plumber Rival Pusap, who planted artistic ideas in his community outside the art world's performative frame, and Bernard Bruno, who reconciled use value and artistic practice by working as a house painter. Wright also discussed the "alternative ideological circuit" as a method of intervening on everyday objects like banknotes to insert political and artistic messages. He referenced the online archive "arg aaarg.fail" as both a functional digital library and a conceptual collective artwork. Additionally, he described a political gesture by three Slovenian artists who legally changed their names to that of populist leader Janis Yanchez, obligating them to speak in his name. Wright characterized politics as a process of "seeding an idea" that may initially face rejection but can eventually bear fruit under proper conditions.