Journal of Language and Politics 3:3 (2004), 385–407. issn 1569–2159 / e-issn 1569–9862 © John Benjamins Publishing Company Controversial works of art Some notes on public conflicts Tasos Zembylas University of Music and Performing Art, Vienna Art is a public affair because its meaning is always collectively negotiated. hus, public conflicts that are triggered by works of art are essentially politi- cal and inevitable. he analysis of these conflicts points to the effective limits of acceptability of art in a given social constellation. he following paper investigates two types of art conflicts: (1) conflicts that, at first glance, revolve around the interpretation and the aesthetic apprecia- tion of an artwork; and (2) conflicts that explicitly call into question the legal legitimacy of publication of an artwork. his investigation aims to reveal the variety of contents and conditions which pre-structure public conflicts. Further, it opens a normative discussion of the current forms of dealing with such conflicts in the mass media and in the jurisdiction. Such a critical discussion is necessary, since the political quality of a society can be assessed on how it relates to its own conflicting nature. Keywords: public conflict, censorship, culture policy, public pressure, jurisdiction, mediation Introduction Art is capable of representing political power. his is something it has been doing for centuries, and for this purpose it is undoubtedly still used. his, how- ever, is just one side of the relationship between art and power. Art can some- times refuse to perform this function. hen it represents opposition and evokes conflict. I would like to address this field of tension, although I do not wish to explicitly advocate an aesthetics of subversion or resistance. he controversial nature of art is, in any case, a social phenomenon point- ing to the currently effective limits of acceptability of artistic claims in a given